Big dinosaur exhibit opens Monday at Gail Borden library

The big dinosaurs are back at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin.

That includes Jobaria among the highlights of the popular exhibit which returns with old favorites and new displays, including a specimen that's been likened to Darth Vader.

Nigersaurus, a 110-million-year-old, 40-foot-long plant-eater with a straight, square jaw, will be on display when "Dinosaur Giants: An Exhibit from the Sereno Fossil Lab" opens at noon Monday and running through Sept. 24 at the library, 270 N. Grove Ave.

"It has one of the most bizarre skulls you'll ever see," said paleontologist Paul Sereno, who discovered it in the Sahara Desert in North Africa.

"It's a crazy animal. When I saw that all the teeth are side to side, not front to back, I thought, 'This can't belong to the dino. It must belong to some weird animal.' Finally it clicked and came together when all the bones were freed of the rock."

Jobaria is 135 million years old and 33 feet tall - also discovered by Sereno - and was the centerpiece of the original Elgin exhibit in 2005, seen by an estimated 300,000 people.

"Dinosaurs are wonderful for children. They are just so amazed by dinosaurs," said Libby Hoeft, board president for the Gail Borden Public Library District Foundation. "The dinosaur skeleton going all the way to the ceiling in the central area of the library, it gives schoolchildren an idea of how huge these were."

Sereno also collaborated with the library to bring in the "SuperCroc" exhibit in 2013.