6 Reasons Why You Must Visit the Fossil Hall at the National Museum of Natural History

Deep Time features roughly 700 fossil specimens, many never displayed before. Aside from the previously mentioned T. Rex and the American mastodon, you can gaze at a woolly mammoth, a giant deer from 15,200-11,100 years ago, a giant sloth and the brontothere mammal, a fossil from Nebraska over 30 million years old and the oldest unchanged skeletal mount in the exhibit. We could keep going, but we don’t want to ruin any more momentous surprises.

In total, the new Fossil Hall offers 13 videos and eight interactive touchscreens, supplementing its incredible display of artifacts. The video “How Are We Changing The Planet?” shows just that, while “Earth’s Ancient Fever” shows similarities between the past and present and what ancient climate can tell us about the future. One touchscreen illuminates how people are addressing the issue of climate change; another, entitled “Your Body Through Time,” shows the gradual evolution of the human body, with each body part triggering a video that explains why the part became necessary. Technological elements will engage you and your mind throughout the exhibit.

The Coralyn W. Whitney Fossil Basecamp is an interactive area that introduces important concepts and themes throughout Deep Time, inspired by the museum’s "Q?rius" learning space. Activities are facilitated and supervised by the museum staff, and both kid and adult visitors can participate and ask these staff members about their work at the museum. Demonstrations feature touchable objects to help enlighten visitors on the topics of fossil dating, fossilization and evolution.

Have you ever wondered how fossils end up on display in a museum? Deep Time’s FossiLab provides incredible insight into the process. The space is populated by fossil preparators and museum volunteers, giving visitors the opportunity to see how fossils are preserved and prepped for scientific study and viewing in the museum.

Both the Changing Climates section and the Age of Humans Gallery dive deep into the topic of climate change. The former explores the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, an incredibly rapid global warming event that occurred 56 million years ago, and how it can help predict the effects of modern climate change. Changing Climates goes on to show how humans have accelerated a similar warming effect and what choices they can make to stop it. In Age of Humans, visitors are shown how people have launched unparalleled change on the planet over the last 10,000 years. A theater space details what our population is doing in response to the changing planet and a touchscreen shows how you can do your own part in this response through subjects and activities that you love.