Special Report

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

From the formation of Earth through the changing climates and creatures of the past, the Smithsonian's Hall of Fossils explores our planet's Deep Time. Smithsonian Magazine shares stories about the hall, along with the latest news about ancient creatures.

When visitors step into the new hall, they’re welcomed by ice-age creatures like the woolly mammoth.

Gary Mulcahey, Smithsonian Institution

Inside the Hall

Towering over the Fossil Hall is the plant-eating sauropod <em>Diplodocus,</em> which has been on display since 1931 and now is posed with tail in the air.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Amid All the Fossils, Smithsonian's New Dinosaur Exhibition Tells the Complex Story of Life

“In order to interpret the past,

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Meet the Master Muralist Who Inspired Today's Generation of Paleoartists

The sequoia tree slab is an invitation to begin thinking about a vast timescale that includes everything from fossils of armored amoebas to the great <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em>.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

A 16-Million-Year-Old Tree Tells a Deep Story of the Passage of Time

Dinosaur News

Many of the reptiles that thrived during the Triassic were crocodile relatives that dinosaurs would later mimic through evolutionary happenstance, such as Postosuchus (back) and Desmatosuchus (front).

Dinosaurs Were Evolutionary Copycats of These Long-Lost Look-Alikes

A rendering of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum dinosaurs with their 50-foot-long necks.

This Dinosaur Had a 50-Foot-Long Neck, Scientists Say

Adam Driver stars in the new movie 65.

What Earth Would Have Really Looked Like in Adam Driver's '65'

An artist's representation of the dinosaur that left the footprint

Squatting Dinosaur Left Behind a Huge Footprint in England

Five images display (A) an unhatched egg, (B) a circular outline of a possibly unhatched egg, (C) a compressed egg showing hatching window (arrow) and eggshells collected around the hatching window (circled), (D) an egg showing a curved outline, and (E) a deformed egg showing egg surfaces slipping past each other.

Scientists Uncover Nearly 100 Dinosaur Nests in Fossilized Hatchery

Carlyn Kranking

Ancient Earth

The Irish elk, or Megaloceros giganteus, ranged across northern Eurasia from Siberia to Ireland and shed its giant antlers every year. It is on display in the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Biggest. Antlers. Ever. Meet the Irish Elk

Illustration from the graphic novel 'Martina and the Bridge of Time' by Aaron O'Dea and Ian Cooke Tapia.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Time Travel Into Panama's Deep History With This Richly Illustrated New Graphic Novel

Artist's impression of the Chicxulub impact.

After the Dinosaur-Killing Impact, Soot Played a Remarkable Role in Extinction

Nola Taylor Redd

The list covers findings in biology, justice and human rights, the environment, and more.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Fifty Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since the First Earth Day

Smithsonian magazine

Stromatolites at Lake Thetis, Western Australia

Why It’s So Difficult to Find Earth’s Earliest Life