Some recent celebratory forever stamps have pretty significant ties to HMNS. No, it’s not because they depict the life of a T-Rex. The same artist that created these stunning images, is the mastermind behind the murals within the museum’s paleontology hall! Paleoartist Julius Csotonyi and the United States Postal Service have joined together to give stamp collectors and enthusiasts something fun and unique.

There are four panels, showing T-rex in various life stages. The stamps illustrate a newly hatched, feather-covered baby T-Rex, a fully grown adult T-rex walking through a clearing, T-rex as the predator hunting its prey and a fossilized T-rex and Triceratops similar to that of a scene found at HMNS. And if that isn’t cool enough, two of the stamps are holograms.

With 15 works of art adorning the walls of the Morian Hall of Paleontology, Csotonyi is no stranger to HMNS. The murals give guests an idea of how the fossils on display may have looked, moved and behaved when once full of life. His work looks hyper realistic, but keeps the integrity of these creatures in line with what scientists have uncovered so far about their anatomy and such.

Commissioned for his artistic additions to the 2012 hall renovations, Csotonyi was told by the experts what fossils were to be displayed and then delivered almost instantaneously. Curator David Temple only had words of praise for the paleoartist. “It was custom made to the minute,” he says, adding the story of a trimerhorachis whose skin needed to be altered within an already completed mural. Csotonyi took note and returned the updated piece of art within days!

Grab the T-Rex forever stamps for your own collection and then visit HMNS to see the artistic style of Julius Csotonyi yourself in the Morian Hall of Paleontology.