Nature

Exhibitions

Wildfire

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

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Image of living wall with bench and succulents

Nature Lab

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

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Children standing around the Paleo Play Zone, a counter with imitation sand and fossils, with mounted taxidermy up high on the wall in the background

Discovery Center

Dig for dinosaurs, wonder at live insects, and organize your own diorama in the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Discovery Center.

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Events

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Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background

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Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

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daily

3:00 pm

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Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

Stories

Animalia: Mollusca: Bivalvia: Mytilida: Mytilidae: Arcuatula: Arcuatula senhousia

Barcoding the Shoreline

Our Marine Biodiversity Center scientists have been sampling tidepools to build a "biolibrary" to identify the inhabitants of the coast's precious ecosystems.

A pair of hands hold brown bits of fossil leaves.

Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum Carbon Release Study

A Tar Pits researcher reconstructed forests of 56 million years ago—with chilling parallels for our warming planet: climate change led to a widespread browning of Earth's landscapes—against a backdrop of elevated atmospheric CO₂, global warming, and reduced rainfall triggered by volcanically driven carbon release—and trees are at the root of these drastic changes.

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.

Native CA insects arranged into a mandala

New Study More Than Triples the Estimates of Insect Species From 6 Million to 20 Million

Ground-breaking study explodes the number of estimated insects, emphasizing the need for conservation and natural history collections

A high school building with the words 'San Pedro Pirates' surrounding an image of a pirate mascot on the building. Signs of construction surround the building

Fossils Under San Pedro High School Reveal a Pleistocene Beach in a Miocene Sea

Discover some of the last fossils and the lasting impact of the bone beds beneath San Pedro High School

Orcas: Culture Beneath the Surface

Dive into the matriarchal culture of orcas

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Red-tailed Hawk in Cedar Creek smoke - 2 cropped(

Project Phoenix: Investigating Bird Responses to Smoke

This groundbreaking community science project seeks to understand how wildfire smoke is impacting birds.

Backyard Bats

This survey, which is supported by the Disney Conservation Fund, is an opportunity to broaden awareness and interest in conserving species found in urban areas.

News & Press

Return of the Short (Tyrant) King: A New Paper by Dinosaur Institute Researcher Shows Nanotyrannus Was Not a Juvenile T. rex

Dinosaur Institute researcher shows throat bones accurately record maturity in dinosaurs, establishing Nanotyrannus was a fully grown, entirely distinct species from T. rex