Discoveries

Exhibitions

Deep Sea Challenger sub underwater and exploring

Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss

Explore the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER
Dec 12, 2022–Feb 20, 2023

Learn more

Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

See how big discoveries can come from the tiniest things in the Gem and Mineral Hall.

Learn more

Exhibition | NHM

Dinosaur Hall

Step Into Our Award-winning Exhibition, and Enter the Age of Dinosaurs

Learn more

Exhibition | LBTP

Fossil Lab

What happens after the fossils at La Brea Tar Pits are excavated? This is where you find out.

Learn more

Exhibition | LBTP

3D Theater

Travel back in time with Titans of the Ice Age.

Learn more

Events

See all events

Museum Educator wearing a headset with a microphone and holding a skull.

LBTP

Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These 20-minute presentations highlight what we can learn at the Tar Pits, followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am
3:30 pm

3:30 pm daily: Meet outside the Fossil Lab

11 am Saturday–Sunday: Meet at the flagpole in front of Museum

Museum Educator leading visitors along a path with big cat paw prints

LBTP

Tours & Activities Kids & Family Adults

Excavator Tour

The Excavator Tour explores the Fossil Lab where real paleontologists work, our historic excavation sites, and Project 23, where live excavations can be seen.

Learn more

daily

1:00 pm

LBTP

Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These 20-minute presentations highlight what we can learn at the Tar Pits, followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am
3:30 pm

3:30 pm daily: Meet outside the Fossil Lab

11 am Saturday–Sunday: Meet at the flagpole in front of Museum

LBTP

Tours & Activities Kids & Family Adults

Excavator Tour

The Excavator Tour explores the Fossil Lab where real paleontologists work, our historic excavation sites, and Project 23, where live excavations can be seen.

Learn more

daily

1:00 pm

LBTP

Tours & Activities Kids & Family Adults

Excavator Tour

The Excavator Tour explores the Fossil Lab where real paleontologists work, our historic excavation sites, and Project 23, where live excavations can be seen.

Learn more

daily

1:00 pm

Stories

The Fairy Poppy Bee's Dance of Fragility and Resilience

Discover one of the 1600 species of native California bees and the intimate portraits in conservation photographer Krystle Hickman's forthcoming book, The ABCs of California Native Bees

A paradise tanager looks directly into a camera with its green head cocked, visible red spot on its back, and stunningly bright blue breast.

Hidden black and white feathers are the secret behind songbirds' dazzling colors

Colorful songbirds like tanagers use a painterly technique to make their colors pop

Vintage illustration of various feathers and specimen skins of birds

How Bird Feathers Work

A brief look at the structure of feathers—and what they mean to birds

A life-like painting of a large lizard lurking over a nest of dinosaur eggs with one already in its mouth

A Monster “Goblin” at the Feet of Dinosaurs

Meet the newly discovered giant, armored lizard named for the Hobbit’s goblin prince

An silhouette of a bird filled with naming words like 'black' 'western' etc

A First Step to Bird Names as Simple as ABC

First-of-its-kind Avian Lexicon Atlas maps how bird species get their names

Illustration of a long-legged crocodile-looking reptile looks at a mammal carcass on an ancient tropical islands

How Ancient Crocodile-Like Predators Ruled the Islands of the Caribbean

NHM's scientist discovers that sebicids, ancient land-dwelling crocodile-like beasts, reigned over the West Indies as apex predators after vanishing from South America

Discover more

NHMLAC Discovery Talk with Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe

Join Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe as he explores the migration of vertebrate fauna to the Caribbean Islands and the effects of climate change on his field work.

NHMLAC Discovery Talk with Shannen Robson

Join Dr. Shannen Robson, Collections Manager of Mammalogy, as she explores how digitizing initiatives are creating novel research areas for biological collections, reshaping the roles of museum collections managers, improving educational access, and creating new opportunities for collaboration.

Extended Specimen Lecture Series Videos

Forest Urban Live Invertebrates Collections Manager

NHMLAC Discovery Talk with Forest Urban

Join Forest Urban, Manager of Invertebrate Living Collections, as he goes behind-the-scenes of NHM’s Insectary, explores the new Bugtopia exhibit, and shares what he and his team has been up to during the museum's temporary closure.

Happy Hour with Dr. Regan Dunn

News & Press

La Brea Tar Pits Researchers Identify a Mysterious Fossil Seed to Reveal New Chapters in L.A.’s Climate History

Through advanced microscopy and imaging techniques, La Brea Tar Pits scientists successfully identify a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the region’s climate future

The exceptionally rare fossil skull of a new bird species from the Age of Dinosaurs reveals that avian skulls achieved their recognizably modern shape using archaic structures—an unexpected but stunning example of parallel evolution—while also unearthing a missing link in the long evolutionary history of the bird brain.

A new study used museum collections to map ammonite diversity around the globe before their total extinction and found they were not in decline prior to their extinction alongside non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago

Based on the structure of cubic zirconium silicate, the innovative treatment opens doors to future mineral-based treatments made possible by cutting-edge museum science