Fossils

Exhibitions

Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

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

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Ichthyosaur

New Discoveries

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Exhibition | NHM

Dinosaur Hall

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

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Exhibition | LBTP

Fossil Lab

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

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Events

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Maureen Walsh and children standing around a table with a skeletal specimen

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Cretaceous Creatures

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weekly

through 07/03/25

12:00 am

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Cretaceous Creatures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/03/25

12:00 am

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Cretaceous Creatures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/03/25

12:00 am

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Cretaceous Creatures

Learn more

weekly

through 07/03/25

12:00 am

Children looking and pointing at taxidermy cats

nhm

Kids & Family Youth

Adventures in Nature Day Camp: Feline Friends

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weekly

through 07/25/25

12:00 am

Stories

Illustration of ice age bird, the teratorn.

Meet Teratorn, the Largest Bird Found at La Brea Tar Pits

The teratorn was undoubtedly big, but was it a big vulture or something else?

Solving a Juniper Seed Mystery at La Brea Tar Pits

How identifying a mysterious fossil seed reveals Ice Age climate change

A paleoart rendition of Eupachydiscus sp. by Cullen Townsend.

Collections Staff Help Ammonites Come Out of Their Shells

Uncovering how digitization and collections management made a groundbreaking extinction study come to life

Closeup of light green skeleton head with neck and top of torso in the background

Meet LA's Gnewest Star: Gnatalie the Green Dino

NHM Commons—the Museum’s new wing and community hub—will welcome visitors this fall with, among other wonders, the newest and biggest fossil Angeleno: Gnatalie.

Walking With Giant Sloths

Take a (virtual) summer road trip to White Sands National Park to explore the fossilized tracks of giant ground sloths

Wonder Is in Our Bones

How giant fossils expand the dimensions of our imagination

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Members Q&A with Dr. Nathan Smith

You're in for a T-rrific time in this Members Q&A with Dr. Nathan Smith, NHMLAC's Associate Curator of Dino Institute.

Dino Fest Resources Guide

Dino Fest 2023 art featuring Coelophysis

Dino Fest Resources Guide

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.

Puma skull from Project 23 at La Brea Tar Pits

Pebbles the Ice Age Puma

News & Press

New La Brea Tar Pits Display Shows How Modern Science Can Shed New Light on Old Fossils

Three revamped cases display how the journey of fossils from the asphalt to the lab can lead to incredible new discoveries about our world

“Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles” published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

The paper looks at amber fragments preserving the remains of feathers from the Early Cretaceous and larvae related to modern feather-feeding beetles in intimate contact

Effort Connects More Than a Billion Objects in Scientific Collections Across 73 Museums in 28 Countries

Findings Shared in New Paper Published in Science Magazine on March 23, 2023

Eating bamboo? It's all in the wrist.

An ancient fossil reveals the earliest panda to survive solely on bamboo and the evolutionary history of panda's false thumbs

Earth’s First Giant

The two-meter skull of a humongous new ichthyosaur species, Earth’s first known giant creature, reveals how both the extinct marine reptiles and modern whales became giants on earth