Our museums remain closed due to COVID-19. While LA County Public Health has entered Phase 3 of the Roadmap to Recovery, allowing for the reopening of museums on June 12, our museums are still slowly welcoming back staff and are in the process of planning for new health and safety protocols in our galleries and gardens. Therefore, we will not be reopening until later in the summer. Sign up here to be the first to know when we will safely re-open to the public and in the meantime, stay connected from home.

Dinosaur Lab

Watch real scientists prepare fossils every day.

kids looking into dino lab

Peek behind the scenes to see real paleontologists preparing their latest fossil discoveries. At the Dinosaur Lab, you can watch fossil preparators up close carefully chipping away rock to reveal the bones of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles.

Preparator works on large bone in the Dino Lab

It takes days of careful work to clean a single bone.

Girl feels dinosaur tooth in Dino Lab

Touch a dinosaur tooth.

Detailed preparation in Dino Lab

Paleontologists carefully chip away stone from fossil bones.

Couple looks into Dino Lab

Real fossils and real paleontologists.

Young girl looks through window in Dino Lab

Eye-to-eye with a skull from millions of years ago.

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It takes days of careful work to clean a single bone.

Touch a dinosaur tooth.

Paleontologists carefully chip away stone from fossil bones.

Real fossils and real paleontologists.

Eye-to-eye with a skull from millions of years ago.

While you're visiting, you'll:

  • Learn how fossils are brought back to life.
  • Touch a dinosaur footprint.
  • See new discoveries before they are even announced.
expedition in utah for r&c
Dinosaurs in the Desert
A crew heads to the Badlands of Utah and New Mexico and return with (literally) tons of fossil treasure, plus a few big surprises.
Read more