Overview

Fossil Mysteries , a highly interactive exhibition, explores big themes in science: evolution, extinction, ecology, and Earth processes. Abundant fossils, models, murals, and dioramas offer unique multi-sensory experiences. You'll see the world—past and present—in a whole new way.

Explore! Touch!

• Look at and touch real fossils and rocks—the clues to solve countless mysteries.
• Assemble a story about a dinosaur's life, death, burial, and discovery.
• Examine and identify microfossils.
• Move like an animal or build an animal!
• Make the Earth change shape by moving interactive models.
• Imagine prehistoric plants and animals that lived in southern California and Baja California.
• Find survivors of the past.

Ponder mysteries such as:

• Where are the dinosaurs in our region?
• How did prehistoric animals evolve?
• How did they live, move, and interact?
• What did they eat?
• How did our region take shape?
• How did mass extinction reset the world stage?
• Why did some animals become extinct?
• How do fossils relate to our lives today?

Discover a world full of change in Fossil Mysteries.

For a quick tour of the exhibit, visit our interactive map.

For more about the exhibition, see our in-depth description.

Exhibit photographs: François Gohier