Universal Pulled the Interactive Fossil Scanners From the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, the Latest Hands-On Element to Go Since 2020

Slide a scanner up a rock wall, highlight a fossil, read what it was. That small piece of Jurassic Park at Universal's Islands of Adventure is now gone.

WDW News Today reported on Monday, July 27 that the interactive scanners mounted over the "Discovering Dinosaurs" rock wall inside the Jurassic Park Discovery Center have been removed. Guests could slide them up and down their vertical poles to highlight different fossils in the wall and learn about the species.

The prop screens read "Neutrino Data Scanner," and moving one over the wall pulled up a scan and an identification readout for the fossil underneath. (Photo: WDW News Today)

What is left: the wall itself. WDWNT reports that the rock face remains but with no interactive element, and that strips of black scrim now run along the bottom to cover the signs of the removal.

The Discovering Dinosaurs wall as it looks now, fossils and a claw still set into the strata, with no scanner poles standing in front of it. (Photo: WDW News Today)

Not the first interactive to disappear

This is not the first thing the Discovery Center has lost. Per WDWNT, the Beasaur interactive periscope, which let guests see through a dinosaur's eyes and move its head around, went away after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The baby Triceratops that used to visit the building returned in 2021 and then ended permanently in 2023.

That leaves a room with less to do in it. WDWNT notes the Discovery Center "has largely become a store," though guests can still witness the hatching of a baby Velociraptor.

The Discovery Center entrance at Islands of Adventure, in a 2009 photo. (Photo: Daryl Mitchell, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

A quiet stretch for Jurassic Park

The timing is what makes a small change worth noticing. Jurassic Park River Adventure, the boat ride with the 85-foot drop, has been closed since January. Universal's own attraction page says the ride is closed "for planned maintenance starting January 5, 2026 through November 19, 2026" and that it "will reopen on November 20, 2026." Universal's page gives no reason beyond that planned maintenance.

Thunder Falls Terrace closed on Monday, July 20 as well. Inside Universal reports the venue is being reimagined as the new signature full-service restaurant for Islands of Adventure, scheduled to debut in 2027.

Still running: Universal's attraction pages list no closures for Jurassic World VelociCoaster or Pteranodon Flyers, and the Discovery Center itself remains open.

Universal has not announced the scanner removal, and its Discovery Center page still calls the building "this interactive center." That page is out of date in other ways, telling guests to "Test your DNA, play You Bet Jurassic and marvel at towering T. rex fossils." For now the fossils in the Discovering Dinosaurs wall are something to look at rather than something to play with.

Sources

• WDW News Today, "Interactive Scanners Removed From Jurassic Park Discovery Center at Universal Islands of Adventure" (July 27, 2026)
• Universal Orlando, Jurassic Park River Adventure attraction page
• Universal Orlando, Jurassic Park Discovery Center page
• Inside Universal, "Thunder Falls Terrace Restaurant in Jurassic Park Closes for Major Renovations at Islands of Adventure"

Image credits: Scanner and Discovering Dinosaurs wall photos by WDW News Today. Discovery Center exterior by Daryl Mitchell, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.