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Iryna Obukhovska

@saurlover

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🦖🏛️Dinosaur lover at @nhmla
🦴⚒️Fossil hunter and preparator
🔬🦕Behind the scenes of paleontology

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It’s official - a new world record!🦖😱

Gus the T- rex has just sold for $50.1 million, making him the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. The previous record was held by Apex, the Stegosaurus, which Sotheby’s sold for $44.6 million in 2024.

I’m so happy for everyone who made this possible, and I’m incredibly grateful to have witnessed this historic moment in person.✨🥹💜

I truly hope Gus has a wonderful future somewhere he’ll remain accessible to both the public and scientists. He is an extraordinary, awe-inspiring, and deeply important specimen! 🦖💓 taken in Sotheby's by @saurlover

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3 months ago

Dinosaurs are superstars!💫🦖😎

I already knew that, of course, but every time we have #DinoFest at the @nhmla I’m reminded of it all over again.

The range of people who are obsessed with dinosaurs is so huge that it’s almost impossible to define the audience. You’ll see five-year-olds carrying toy dinosaurs, science students dreaming of becoming paleontologists, wealthy adults who collect fossils, elderly people who’ve loved science their entire lives, couples in matching dino-movie character outfits, artists fascinated by paleoart and so, so many others.

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures can be cute to some people, terrifying to others. They can be inspiring, scientifically fascinating, an investment or even something almost mythical and sacred - like dragons.
They can mean so many different things to us because, in a strange way, we know so much about them and yet know almost nothing at all.🤷🏻‍♀️

Isn’t that cool?

So why do you love dinosaurs? taken in Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County by @saurlover

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a month ago

$403,000 for the piece of plastic 😱✨
That’s how much this legendary prop from the original 1993 #JurassicPark 🦖sold for just a few days ago at the famous auction in Los Angeles.

But to me, to so many of you fellow dinosaur nerds, and obviously to whoever won that bidding war, it’s priceless!

Jurassic Park is one of those movies that helped shape the part of my personality you all know me for. 💛🦖
For so many of us, our love for dinosaurs started with this movie.
But just look where that love has taken me.💫

I’m just a girl from post-Soviet Ukraine who grew up without even having proper toys or clothes. And now I get to hold this piece of Hollywood history before it disappears into someone’s private collection forever.

And I got to see it thanks to Frank Ippolito - a legendary prop maker who definitely deserves his own post.✨

My life is starting to feel more and more like the plot of a motivational movie for kids and teenagers:
Follow your dreams and somehow you might end up living things you never even thought were possible.🤭

Now tell me:
If you had unlimited money, would you spend $403,000 on something like this?
#auction #movieprops #stevenspielberg #dinosaurs taken in Los Angeles, California by @saurlover

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a month ago

Our museum is haunted! 🤫
I’ve heard so many ghost stories from security guards and other colleagues, especially about the Becoming LA hall located in the original part of the museum built in 1913.

And I’m absolutely TERRIFIED of ghosts. 😅
So the only way you’ll catch me hanging out at the museum after dark is at one of our nighttime events!
#HauntedMuseum is my absolute fav 💓🦖🦕and we’ve got a whole marathon of nighttime events coming up. Don’t miss out! 🖤✨ taken in Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County by @saurlover

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15 hours ago

Do you have a wish to share? 🌵🏜️ You know, that one you make when you see a shooting star, when the clock strikes 11:11, or when you notice some other magical sign.
I always make a wish in Joshua Tree. They do come true, but usually in some weird way 🙃 Well, here we go again, magical desert - please, make my wish come true. 🪄 taken in Joshua Tree National Park by @saurlover

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2 months ago

What’s the meaning of life? 🙄
A long time ago, I came to the conclusion that the meaning of my life is to collect new experiences - good or bad. And I’d say I’m doing a pretty good job of it.😅

Here’s one from the latest chapter: how many people do you think can say they’ve helped close down a natural history museum? Probably not many. Now I can.

Taking apart entire exhibits. Packing saber-toothed cats and dire wolves into crates. Carrying giant sloth femurs from one box to another. Watching things being taken out from behind glass that no one had touched since 1970th, mammoth skeletons and mastodon models come down piece by piece. Finding forgotten treasures hidden in the collections for decades. Walking through empty museum halls.

This experience will always have a special place in my memories.✨

Thank you, @thelabreatarpits . I hope that in two years we’ll be putting everything back together - and that I’ll be lucky enough to be part of that moment, too. taken in La Brea Tar Pits and Museum by @saurlover

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2 months ago

The Paramylodon humerus and I would like to remind you that the La Brea Tar Pits @thelabreatarpits is closing for two years this July. You don’t have much time left to experience this one-of-a-kind museum in its iconic old-school form. ⏱️
And “one-of-a-kind ” isn’t just a buzzword here. There is simply nowhere else like it: an active paleontological excavation site in the middle of a major city, an open fossil lab where you can watch scientists at work, and world-class discoveries happening in real time right in front of you.🦣🔬

If you’re still on the fence, send me a message and I’ll convince you. 👌🏻😎 by @saurlover

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4 months ago

Day off with my bff at @thespringresort by @saurlover

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5 months ago

Happy International Museum Day everyone!🧡
Museums are places of power for me. For the past few years, I’ve probably spent 88% of my time in museums - even on my days off.

And honestly, I still don’t know what I love more: working with fossils behind the scenes, which feels almost sacred, or being out on the floor watching visitors.👀
There’s something so special about seeing adults and kids get excited, surprised, and curious. 🤩
Watching couples come to museum for dates, old friends hang out here together, people bring their grandchildren (or even great-grandchildren), kids seeing a Tyrannosaurus skeleton for the very first time…🦖

You get to witness these unforgettable moments becoming part of people’s lives, and somehow feel a little connected to them too.✨

Museums are joy. Museums are pure good :) Come visit. taken in La Brea Tar Pits and Museum by @saurlover

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5 months ago

🤍✨ taken in Newport Beach, California by @saurlover

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5 months ago

What a beauty! ✨no, not me - the pair behind me! 💫

They look like a ready-made composition for a mythological sculpture or an epic painting. So massive, majestic, and threatening!
There’s so much drama, conflict, and tension here! A clash of two architectures of power: massive jaws lined with teeth vs horns and a bony frill. Two monsters from different fairy tales. Fascinating and… terrifying!

And as we know fear can often be part of aesthetic pleasure. 🤩That’s why we’re so drawn to things like mountain and ocean landscapes, powerful natural phenomena, monumental sculptures and buildings.

Dinosaurs have a kind of beauty that doesn’t need to be cute or delicate. It’s the beauty of mass and volume, horns and teeth, spikes and claws.
I work at a museum six days a week, and I still find myself stopping in awe in front of this scene every single day.😍

Does it look beautiful to you too? taken in Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County by @saurlover

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8 days ago