Photos: Tampa’s ‘Big John’ triceratops skeleton is unveiled at Glazer Children’s Museum

Nine years after it set a Guinness world record for largest triceratops skeleton—and 66 million years since it actually roamed the earth—Big John is finally coming together at its new, permanent home in Tampa Bay.

On Feb. 1, downtown Tampa's Glazer Children’s Museum unboxed the fossil’s 700-pound skull, complete with the trademark triceratops horns.

The completed skeleton is being assembled by a team from Zoic, a paleontology company based in Trieste, Italy. Zoic specializes in the extraction and processing of fossil remains, and its work won’t be available to see until Big John’s anticipated unveiling Memorial Day weekend.

As previously reported, the nearly 26-foot long and 10-foot-tall fossil is the centerpiece of Glazer's brand new exhibit, which will take viewers into the Late Cretaceous period. The exhibit will include tunnels with clear domes, where curious kids and adults can pop up and see the fossil from underneath.

If you don’t have a kid, the museum is relaxing its rule that keeps adults without kids from entering starting Memorial Day weekend and for as long as Big John is on display.

And while Big John is the star of the show, Tampeños can thank Tampa's Pagidipati family for bringing it home. At a 2021 auction, Sidd Pagidipati, chairman of Ayon Capitol and Better Health Group, dropped a cool $7.7 million on Big John, which was actually discovered on a ranch in Perkins County, South Dakota by paleontologist Walter Stein.

In a statement, Pagidipati said his family’s interest in the fossil is to make it available for the public and for research. “We want to do our part to help the Tampa Bay area become the best place in our country for families to live and raise their children,” he added.

UPDATED: 02/04/22 2:11 p.m. Updated to make clear that the museum's adult without kids rule is relaxed for as long as Big John is on display.