Tearing apart limbs, sawing through ribs, and separating skull bones are activities usually relegated to summer slasher movies, not the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. However, renovations to the museum's dinosaur hall—which started this spring—necessitate the removal of dinosaur and extinct mammal skeletons that can weigh nearly five tons.

The renovations will modernize a hall that has never seen a major overhaul. They will also give researchers a chance to study the specimens on display—some of which haven't been touched in decades—in more detail.