Theme your Visit is your guide to discovering hidden gems in the museum – all themed on a certain subject. Whether you’re a seasoned museum visitor looking for new ways to explore or a first-timer with a penchant for in-depth knowledge, a themed visit provides the framework for you to experience the museum in a whole new way.
Quetzocotalus – Level 5
Look up! As you enter the museum’s doors, our life-size hanging Quetzalcoatlus sets the scientific tone for the immersive experience on which you are about to embark. The largest flying reptile ever to be discovered, Quetzalcoatlus most likely soared through the air by gliding rather than flapping its wings. Don’t stop there, though. Two more of these massive pterosaurs can be found in the galleries — do you know where?
Collectors’ Corner – Level 5
More than a fossil-filled trading post, the Collectors’ Corner and its surrounding activity stations can bring out the paleontologist in every learner. Take a look under the Corner’s high-powered magnifying glass to analyze and examine natural objects — like fossils! — that you can find in your own surroundings.
Castoroides Ohioensis – Level 5
See our state fossil for yourself! A specimen of a giant Pleistocene beaver found in St. Paul’s Hidden Fall Regional Park, gives clues to how these enormous rodents — the largest to ever live in North America — looked and lived. An important part of the state’s fossil record, these beavers inhabited Minnesota during the Ice Age, at the same time as the first people arrived.
Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery – Level 3
The epicenter of fossil fun at the museum. This prehistoric pièce de résistance is any dino lover’s dream date, with hundreds of fossils, amber, petrified wood, bones, and even coprolites — fossilized…uhhh…dung. Experience the world like a paleontologist, encountering hunters like Allosaurus as they chase other dinosaurs, massive plant-eaters like the Diplodocus standing at 80 feet long, and even tiny trilobites fossilized on the seafloor.
Explore Store – Level 5
Dino discovery isn’t limited to the museum exhibits and galleries. Our Explore Store is just that — a place to discover and take discovery home. Immerse yourself in a land before time with claws-on experiments, dino-mite apparel, rawr-dorable toys, and more. Plus, enjoy up-close examinations of research-grade casts of real fossils, like those of Allosauraus, Triceratops, and Spinosaurus.
