fossil preparators excavation pit 91 la brea tar pits

Browse by Topic

Discoveries

Exhibitions

Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss

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

Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

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

Exhibition | NHM
Dinosaur Hall

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

Exhibition | LBTP
Fossil Lab

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

Exhibition | LBTP
3D Theater

Travel back in time with Titans of the Ice Age.

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.

weekly

  • 10:30 am
  • 1:00 pm

Monday through Friday at 1 pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 am and 1 pm.

LBTP
Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These are short presentations highlighting lesser known stories followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

daily

  • 3:30 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.

weekly

  • 10:30 am
  • 1:00 pm

Monday through Friday at 1 pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 am and 1 pm.

LBTP
Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These are short presentations highlighting lesser known stories followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

daily

  • 3:30 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.

weekly

  • 1:00 pm

Monday through Friday at 1 pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 am and 1 pm.

Discover more

Happy Hour: Getting Really Small with Dr. Jody Martin

Join Dr. Jody Martin on a tour of "the very very small" - from tiny marine invertebrates to the heads of insects to snowflakes and pollen grains and more - to learn about the Museum's brand new electron microscope and how it will be used in research, education, and exhibits!

Read more
Video: Happy Hour - Collections Going Global with Dr. Trina Roberts

In Dr. Trina Roberts', Assoc. VP of Collections, presentation Collections Going Global, you'll hear about some of the ways the vast collection supports research and what NHMLAC is doing to share it worldwide, and how digital info is enhancing our reach and the role the museums play in global research.

Read more
NHMLAC Discovery Talk: L.A.'s Ice Age Animals

Join Connie Clark, La Brea Tar Pits Preparator, as she explores the La Brea Tar Pits Museum Fossil Lab’s work to improve fossil preparation practices, recent finds in Project 23, and why animals found around L.A. today might be rarer in the Tar Pits fossil record.

Read more
Video: Happy Hour - Dawn of the Dinosaurs with Dr. Nate Smith

In Dr. Nate Smith's presentation, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, he will guide us through the recent NHMLAC expeditions at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

Read more
NHMLAC Discovery Talk: New Cloud Forest Species

Join Dr. Adam Clause, Postdoctoral Fellow, as he shares his extraordinary discovery of a new species of lizard living in the lush mountaintop forests of southern Mexico.

Read more

News & Press

Ammonites went out with a diverse bang—and not a long, slow fizzle—in the Late Cretaceous

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

NHM Scientists Discover First-Ever Mineral-Based Treatment for Widespread Disease Using the Structure of Crystals

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

A Lighthouse in the Gobi Desert

A new study quantifies the impact of the world’s great fossil sites on our understanding of evolutionary relationships between fossil groups and discovers the key to understanding lizard evolutionary history in the Gobi Desert.

New Study Finds Life on Land Is More Vulnerable to Mass Extinctions Than Life in the Oceans and Takes Longer to Recover

Paleoecologists, paleontologists, and geologists — including many from NHM’s Dinosaur Institute — found that significant loss of animal life in terrestrial ecosystems more easily leads to collapse than in marine ecosystems, and those ensuing collapses last much longer on land.