Do you dig dinosaurs? Do you have a passion for paleontology? Do you feel strongly about fossils? If so, take this tour to see the best of all things extinct at the museum.
Megalodon Teeth
Start your “tour through time” off right with a photo op within the jaws of the largest shark to ever menace our shores, the now-extinct Carcharodon megalodon.
Trace all of North Carolina's prehistoric past in this gallery full of dinosaurs and more. Touch 70-million-year-old petrified wood, meet a very well-preserved Thescelosaurus named Willo, and “swim” through ancient seas.
Say hello to Acro, a Cretaceous carnivore whose attack on a herd of plant-eating dinosaurs was captured in prehistoric mud. This “high-spined lizard” is the most complete Acrocanthosaurus skeleton ever found.
Travel through 542 million years of Earth's history while on this bridge, which connects the Nature Exploration Center to the Nature Research Center. The tiles and footprints here depict the traces that ancient life left behind.
Ice Age Giants
Though glaciers never reached North Carolina, climate changes may have spelled doom for the mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant wolves and other Ice Age Giants that roamed our state.
Think that extinction only applies to dinosaurs? Think again! Species go extinct in modern times too, some right before our eyes. Visit the Diversity of Life exhibit to learn about how things change, and how biodiversity on our planet reflects those changes.
