A Natural History Museum Wants You to Name a T. Rex and a 25-Meter Blue Whale
Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi has two very large residents that still need names. The museum is asking the public to help name a T. rex and a 25-meter blue whale.
The campaign is called “Name Two Giants. Your Chance To Make History.” According to the museum’s official campaign page, the winning names will appear on permanent museum plaques and in educational materials.
Entries opened on October 5 and close on October 25. You can submit more than one suggestion, and the museum said it will announce the winners in November.
While they don’t have names yet, you can already visit them at the museum. The T. rex is among the five most complete and best-preserved T. rex fossils known, while the female blue whale measures 25 meters long.
How to submit a name
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You can submit names through the museum’s website for either animal or both. The museum strongly encourages names that translate well or have meaning in both Arabic and English.
The name must be original and respectful, and it cannot include a commercial brand name or trademark. The museum even gives two examples of what not to do. “Rexy” and “Whaley” are specifically listed as names to avoid.
This T. rex is millions of years old
The T. rex dates back about 66 to 68 million years to the Late Cretaceous Period. It measures roughly 9 to 10 meters long and still has remarkably intact bones and teeth.
The museum displays it with STAN, another T. rex in its collection. The two are positioned over a fallen Triceratops, and the fossils show old injuries and healed fractures. You can find the unnamed T. rex in the Evolving World: Age of Dinosaurs gallery.
The blue whale came from Canada
Researchers found the whale off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2021 after a suspected ship strike. The museum says it later flew her across continents to Abu Dhabi.
She is a female, and the museum says tiny internal pelvic bones helped identify her sex. Those bones also remind us that the ancestors of modern whales once lived on land.
Getting a 25-meter whale into a museum also took some planning. Her skull was so large that workers had to bring it into the gallery before the building’s final exterior wall was finished.
What would you name these creatures?
