- December 4, 2025
The MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur had multiple animatronic dinosaurs. Some move on their own and others have interactive displays for patrons. Photo by Sierra Williams
The MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur had multiple animatronic dinosaurs, including this velociraptor display. Some move on their own and others have interactive displays for patrons. Photo by Sierra Williams
The MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur had multiple animatronic dinosaurs. Some move on their own and others have interactive displays for patrons. Photo by Sierra Williams
Patrons of the MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur exhibit can take photos in the mouth of a giant T-rex. Photo by Sierra Williams
The dinosaur exhibit at MOAS has several cases with replica skulls, bones and dinosaur eggs, many of which are interactive. Photo by Sierra Williams
Meet Elroy, the tyrannosaurus rex animatronic in Exhibition: Dinosaurs at MOAS. Photo by Sierra Williams
Exhibition: Dinosaurs will be on display until the end of March 2026. Photo by Sierra Williams
The dinosaur exhibit at MOAS has several cases with replica skulls, bones and dinosaur eggs, many of which are interactive. Photo by Sierra Williams
The MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur had multiple animatronic dinosaurs. Some move on their own and others have interactive displays for patrons. Photo by Sierra Williams
The MOAS Exhibition: Dinosaur had multiple animatronic dinosaurs. Some move on their own and others have interactive displays for patrons. Photo by Sierra Williams
Exhibition: Dinosaurs combines technology with education for fun, interactive displays. Photo by Sierra Williams
The children's section of the exhibition had several games for kids to play to learn about dinosaurs, including this display where kids can 'excavate' dinosaur bones. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences is celebrating the prehistoric era with a new animatronic exhibit.
Expedition: Dinosaurs combines life-like animatronics with interactive activities throughout the Children’s Museum. The exhibit opened on Oct. 11 to the public and will be available through March 29.
Visitors will be able to see what dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period looked like and learn about the history of paleontology. Some of the animatronics include a Dilophosaurus and two Velociraptors, among others.
The MOAS Children’s Museum has been closed since Aug. 8 as the previous exhibits were taken down in preparation for the museum’s upcoming shift to a new building in the future. Expedition: Dinosaurs will be the last major exhibit in the children’s museum before MOAS closes in 2026.
The future Children's Museum building will span two stories and 60,000 square feet on 60 acres at 352 S. Nova Road.
Paleontology is a massive field, said museum curator Zack Zacharias. When the museum was scouting exhibits for its grand finale event, he said, they wanted something that was interactive and focused on the natural sciences. The dinosaurs exhibit is good for kids and adults and gives a good introduction to dinosaurs and paleontology.
“It's a great way to have a nice introduction to dinosaurs and paleontology in general, because a lot of the hands on and displays,” he said.
MOAS Chief Advancement Officer Jonna Royer said Expedition: Dinosaurs perfectly portrays the trend toward more interactive exhibits. The new Children’s Museum will hopefully have a lot of that same interaction, she said.
“A lot of people were disappointed when they heard that we were closing the Children's Museum,” she said. “But what they don't understand is we are bringing it back, bigger and better than ever in the new museum, the children's experience over there will be interactive. It's going to be so much fun, it's going to be like nothing they've ever seen.”
And the museum will not be going away entirely as the new building is completed, she said. They will still be present in the community.
“Even though the building may be closing to the public, the museum will still be very prominent in the community,” Royer said. “We are putting together something called Framing the Future: Museum in motion.”
Framing the Future will be a mobile museum of sorts, allowing MOAS to go out into the community to people and areas that might not have had access to MOAS before.
The museum is still ironing out the details, Royer said, but plans will include a home for the museum’s Summer Learning Institute and other membership benefits.
One of the other initiatives is a mobile museum and a mobile planetarium.
“The portable planetarium is amazing,” Royer said. “It seats up to 30 people, and it will allow us to do astronomical activities in the community.”
Royer said the museum is not releasing any further specific information on the new buildings until December, including details and renderings of what the new building will look like.
“There's so much that's going to be changing,” Royer said.
