The new Mosasaurus dinosaur fossil arrived in several pieces and had to be assembled before it was raised up by cables in the ceiling. Its toothy smile will greet visitors to the museum in downtown Blue Earth.

There is a new giant in Blue Earth, and it isn’t green.

The Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History has a new dinosaur fossil that just arrived this past Monday.

The new dinosaur is a Mosasaurus and is one of the dinosaurs that swam in the oceans. It looked like a cross between a whale and a crocodile.

Some Mosasaurus grew to great lengths, as large as a whale. The one that is now in the local museum is not quite that large. However, the board of directors at the museum think it will still be a big hit with both young visitors and adults alike.

It is a Mosasaurus that is shown in the Jurassic Park movies leaping out of the ocean and grabbing a Tyrannosaurus Rex with its teeth and dragging it into the sea.

The new fossil came from a museum group in Colorado. The Blue Earth museum traded the Pteranodon that was hanging on the back wall of the Blue Earth Community Library for the new Mosasaurus.

Two people from that museum in Colorado brought the Mosasaurus to Blue Earth, installed it by hanging it from the museum ceiling, and removed the Pteranodon from the library wall, all in one day.

“We think this was a very good exchange,” museum curator Jim Pollard said. “They wanted the Pteranodon and we thought the Mosasaurus would be a great addition to the museum here. And they were willing to do all the transporting, installation and removal as part of the swap.”

Currently the museum is only open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointments. But in June, July and August the museum will be open every day, seven days a week, from 1-4 p.m. every afternoon.

The Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History is operated by the Blue Earth Children’s Museum Foundation, a non-profit group.

The museum opened up last year for the first time on July 1. It had been the Fossil Discovery Center in the Blue Earth Community Library and now has expanded into a museum.