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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Stories

A Decade of Discoveries for 10 Years of Dino Fest

To mark 10 years of Dino Fest, we're looking back at 10 of the colossal discoveries by NHM researchers from the Age of Dinosaurs

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

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

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

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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

Ice Age Saber-toothed Cats and Dire Wolves Suffered From Diseased Joints

The new species is one of the earliest ancestor of modern dolphins yet discovered

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