If you’re looking for a fun-filled and free activity, especially for the school holidays, then you’re in luck as a new exhibition is roaring into Manchester Museum this October half term. Known as Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat, the new exhibition at Manchester Museum offers kids of all ages (and adults too) the chance to experience a close encounter with one of the most iconic dinosaurs in history.
Visitors will come face-to-face with a magnificent, fossilised Triceratops skull, as part of a fun, family-friendly experience that will reveal how this three-horned giant lived, what it ate, and how it survived battles with predators like the mighty T. rex.
What to expect at the Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat exhibition
A glimpse into the Cretaceous world and the story of Triceratops
The exhibition at Manchester Museum starts with an atmospheric glimpse into the Cretaceous world that Triceratops once inhabited, evoking the sights, sounds and creatures of the time. Following this, visitors are invited to dive into the story of Triceratops in more detail, using its anatomy to reveal how it would have lived.
Horns hint at the need for defence in an unforgiving environment, an awesome frill was ideal for display, while a beak is built for shearing vegetation was paired with teeth adapted for endless grazing. The exhibition also features comparisons with animals like bighorn sheep, deer, peacocks and parrots to help visitors understand how traits and behaviours can echo across millions of years.
And at the heart of the museum‘s exhibition is a rare, 1.9-metre-long skull, presented as a striking connection to a lost ecosystem – located in Manchester for a limited time only.
Hands-on, interactive elements
Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat includes hands-on, interactive elements, such as a digital touch replica of the Triceratops skull that will allow visitors to feel its facial features in order to learn more about each element. There will also be a fossil dig, where children and families can uncover replicas and learn how palaeontologists piece together the past.
Elsewhere in Manchester Museum, dinosaur-lovers can also visit Stan the T. rex as well as discover the dramatic rock layer marking the meteorite impact that ended the age of dinosaurs.
An exhibition that inspires the junior palaeontologists and reignites that old dinosaur curiosity flame among adults, too
Glenn Roadley, Curator of Zoology at Manchester Museum, said: “So many of us have a love of dinosaurs as kids and it’s not hard to see why – the likes of Triceratops were truly awesome animals, adapted to life in a world that feels so unfamiliar. But many people grow out of this curiosity as they get older, so we’re hoping this exhibition not only inspires the junior palaeontologists but also reignites that old flame among adults too.”
“Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat is built around a rare Triceratops skull fossil, which is in Manchester for a limited time only, and we hope this incredible specimen will provide a portal into a fascinating lost world while also helping us to better understand the animals we share our planet with today.”
How to visit the Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat exhibition
The Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat exhibition at Manchester Museum is open from October 25, 2025 and runs until February 22, 2026. The exhibition is free to enter, but tickets can be booked in advance here.
Tickets are allocated in hourly timeslots but you are free to spend longer in the exhibition if you wish. You will be able to use your ticket any time during the time slot you’ve booked.
📍Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL.