Discoveries

Exhibitions

Deep Sea Challenger sub underwater and exploring

Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss

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

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Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

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

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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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Exhibition | LBTP

3D Theater

Travel back in time with Titans of the Ice Age.

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Events

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Museum Educator wearing a headset with a microphone and holding a skull.

LBTP

Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These 20-minute presentations highlight what we can learn at the Tar Pits, followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

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weekly

3:30 pm

3:30 pm daily: Meet at the Fossil Lab

11 am Sat./Sun.: Meet at the flagpole outside Museum

Museum Educator leading visitors along a path with big cat paw prints

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.

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daily

1:00 pm

LBTP

Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These 20-minute presentations highlight what we can learn at the Tar Pits, followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

Learn more

weekly

3:30 pm

3:30 pm daily: Meet at the Fossil Lab

11 am Sat./Sun.: Meet at the flagpole outside Museum

LBTP

Tours & Activities

Discoveries From the Tar Pits

Join a Museum Educator to hear about exciting discoveries from the Tar Pits! These 20-minute presentations highlight what we can learn at the Tar Pits, followed by a Q&A opportunity. Topics are always changing.

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am
3:30 pm

3:30 pm daily: Meet at the Fossil Lab

11 am Sat./Sun.: Meet at the flagpole outside Museum

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.

Learn more

daily

1:00 pm

Stories

Fossil tree limb with a fossil bird on top of it framed by demolished wall

Fossil Trees Help Grow Our Understanding of Ancient Climate

A new study reveals how ancient trees from La Brea Tar Pits helped warm the planet during the last ice age by coughing up CO2

Illustration of aquatic sloths chilling by the beach next to some penguins and sea lions during a sun set

Dive Into the Weird Miocene World of Aquatic Sloths

A new paper by an international team of researchers, including NHM's Curator of Marine Mammals, Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe, uncovers more secrets of aquasloths with one of the most complete skeletons ever discovered

Dung beetle expedition Catalina Island crew

Join the Dung Beetle Hunt

Walk in the shoes of La Brea Tar Pits scientists who ventured to a less-trodden part of Catalina Island to scout for dung beetles in bison poop!

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

Bridget Altman Paskil at Ghost Ranch New Mexico

More than a rock

Our intrepid colleague's dig diary from her fossil-finding expedition to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

The Fairy Poppy Bee's Dance of Fragility and Resilience

Discover one of the 1600 species of native California bees and the intimate portraits in conservation photographer Krystle Hickman's forthcoming book, The ABCs of California Native Bees

Discover more

Scientists hiking a mountainous trail to a cave in the distance.

Gypsum Cave

News & Press

From Mosasaurs to Snakes and Lizards, “Megafilters” Shape Reptile Fossil Collections

The environment and the durability of their bones are the drivers behind which reptiles—and which parts of reptiles—end up shaping museum collections and our understanding of the fossil record.

Vibrant songbirds share a technique with painters: using white and black (feathers) to make their colors pop, NHM scientist finds

Discovery of Bolg amondol, a name inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe, reveals the complex evolutionary history of giant Gila Monster relatives

A new study finds that land-dwelling crocodile-like sebecids were the apex predators of the West Indies, surviving on the islands after vanishing from South America

Organized by the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, the community science initiative has grown from two cities to nearly 700 worldwide