A number of museums have exhibitions right now where you can get up close and personal with those big beasties, both from the movie versions and ones from the long lost past. Some museums also let you join in the fieldwork or just watch the excavations close up. Whatever your participation level, we have a trip for you.

The San Diego Museum of Natural History is host to The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park: The Lost World, through Sept. 10, 2000. This exhibition has fleshed-out models of a number of different dinosaurs, allowing for a “real virtual” dino experience. Giganotosaurus, a newly unearthed skeleton from Patagonia, larger even the T. rex, will is also on display. In addition, the Extinction Theatre explains various theories of how the dinosaurs became extinct.