Los Angeles

Exhibitions

Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of L.A.

Meet your tiny neighbors!

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Rise Up L.A.: A Century of Votes for Women

While some women earned the right to vote in 1920, the fight was far from finished.

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The Woolsey Fire in Southern California seen from Malibu Canyon Road.

Wildfire

For many years, we've been adding fuel to the fire.

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Nature Lab

Live animals and hands-on interactives show you L.A.’s wild side.

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Sin Censura: A Mural Remembers L.A.

“This was my chance to show what I wish was in the history books.”
—Chicana artist Barbara Carrasco

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Stories

Diorama of a family of black bears in Yosemite Valley

Black Bears in Your Los Angeles Backyard

We asked our Curator of Mammalogy and Curator of Community Science what to do about big, hairy nosy neighbors

Reconstruction of Spea labreae, a black toad with orange spots in front of a tar pit, flanked by three other toads

Meet Spea labreae, a New Species of Ice Age Toad Discovered at La Brea Tar Pits

The first new extinct toad species and the first description of the Mexican burrowing toad at the Tar Pits help us understand the impacts of climate change on species distributions, past, present, and future.

An elephant, tapir, saber-toothed cat, llama, and pecarry face off with a pair of giant sloths, a pair of armadillos, a big rodent, and a terror bird, the former on the North American side and the latter on the South America; a globe is in the top left

10-million-year-long Mammal Layover in Mexico Primed the Pump for the Great American Biotic Interchange Between North and South America

Published in the journal Science, a new study by NHM researchers shows that Mexico acted as a biodiversity "holding pen" for 10 million years ahead of the Great American Biotic Interchange that opened the floodgates between North and South America 2.8 million years ago.

A woman with short gray hair and glasses next to a model orca

Keiko’s Tooth: A Killer Whale, a Movie Star, and the Hidden Power of Museum Collections

Assistant Mammalogy Collections Manager Amanda Killian on finding the Free Willy star's tooth and the ever-growing value of natural history museum collections