Ichthyosaur Puppet (Discovery Museum)

Reno, Nevada, United States

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Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 50-foot plywood ichthyosaur skeleton built as a Burning Man marionette in 2013 by artist Jerry Snyder and volunteers. It was given to the Discovery museum in Reno and installed in March 2014 above the main entrance.

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Ichthyosaur Puppet (Discovery Museum)

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Site-level location · 39.5217° N, 119.8090° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Nevada's state fossil is a sea monster, and in Reno a plywood version of it hangs over the door of a science museum.

The idea began over drinks, according to the Reno News & Review in 2014. Artist Jerry Snyder wanted a regionally themed wood sculpture for Burning Man's Circle of Regional Effigies, and settled on the ichthyosaur, Nevada's state fossil. After a research trip to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, a team of about 50 volunteers began cutting and gluing plywood on 13 April 2013 at The Generator, a Sparks artists' workspace. The museum says it is made of layers of plywood cut, glued and shaped with grinders.

The paper reports about 2,500 hours of labour, 40 sheets of three-quarter-inch plywood, and a weight near 2,000 pounds. Each vertebra has seven discs, each rib three layers, and the head took about 100 hours. Snyder described it as actual size but not scientifically accurate.

At Burning Man in 2013 it was a working puppet: visitors could pull ropes to open the mouth and move the fins, or make the whole creature appear to swim. Dust and use meant daily repairs, which the crew nicknamed "the fixyosaur".

Snyder gave it to the Nevada Discovery Museum (now The Discovery), and it was installed in early March 2014, hung by metal cords from the ceiling above the main entrance. No longer a marionette, it is a permanent sculpture. The museum's October 2024 post says it remains on display, and lists it as a stop in the Nevada Paleontology Passport.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Indoors at The Discovery, a hands-on science museum in downtown Reno. The sculpture hangs from the ceiling; the museum said in October 2024 that it is on display. Check the museum's hours and admission page for current hours and admission.

ACCESS

Inside The Discovery, 490 S. Center Street, Reno. It was hung above the main entrance in 2014. Museum admission and opening hours apply; see nvdm.org.

COMMUNITY

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BELIEVE 70-foot sculpture (City Plaza)

Reno, Nevada

BELIEVE is a 70-foot-long mild-steel word sculpture on City Plaza beside the Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada. Made by Laura Kimpton and Jeff Schomberg and shown at Burning Man in 2013, it was bought by the City of Reno and moved to the plaza in May 2016.

Public art

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1.0 km away

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