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

Gary Mulcahey, Smithsonian Institution
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.

Inside the Hall

Towering over the Fossil Hall is the plant-eating sauropod Diplodocus, 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

The much-anticipated exhibition is packed full of Mesozoic dinosaur drama, new science, hands-on discoveries and state-of-the-art museum artistry

“In order to interpret the past,

At the Smithsonian

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

The treasured Jay Matternes murals of lost Mesozoic worlds are featured in a new Smithsonian book

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 Tyrannosaurus rex.

At the Smithsonian

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

To explain the exceedingly long life of the planet, the Smithsonian’s new fossil hall designers began with this arboreal wonder

Dinosaur News

Tyrannosaurus rex’s image has seen major adjustments over the past century.

Science

Five Discoveries That Changed Our Understanding of T. Rex Forever, From Warm Blood to Lips

Paleontologists are still unraveling the secrets of the world’s most famous dinosaur, such as its outward appearance or the way that it hunted. With each new finding, our view of the “tyrant lizard king” has gotten a little clearer—and sometimes has radically shifted

An artistic rendering of the newly discovered species Norellraptor barsboldi.

Smart News

Remarkable Fossil of a Feathered, Winged Dinosaur Further Hints That Flight Evolved Multiple Times Among the ‘Terrible Lizards’

The fossil belonged to a category of dinosaurs called microraptors, which were bird-like but not ancestors of modern-day avians. A new study found that this group of ancient predators evolved similar anatomical adaptations to birds, but developed them in a different order

In the new study, researchers analyzed fossilized teeth, including two from Thomas the T. rex.

Smart News

Tyrannosaurus Rex Was a Warm-Blooded Dinosaur, With a Body Temperature Similar to That of Humans, Study Suggests

A tooth analysis hints that the fearsome predator ran at a toasty 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Maintaining that internal temperature may have allowed it to inhabit a range stretching from modern-day Alaska to Mexico during the Cretaceous period

The Earth in the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs roamed the planet, looked much unlike how it does today—even beyond presence of creatures like Giganotosaurus.

Science

Five Ways the World of the Dinosaurs Looked Different From Ours, Beyond the Presence of the ‘Terrible Lizards’

Earth has changed dramatically since the Age of Dinosaurs, from its climate to geography and animal life

Scientists think a Nanotyrannus or a young Tyrannosaurus rex might have eaten the bird.

Smart News

A 66-Million-Year-Old Feather Trapped in Dinosaur Poop Might Help Explain Why Some Birds Survived Mass Extinction

Discovered in Montana in 2016, the cherry-size coprolite contains feathers, bones and evidence of the bird’s last meal before the creature was eaten by a theropod

Ancient Earth

This image represents one illustration of how the trilobite fossil may have been set as an amulet or pendant.

Smart News

Ancient Romans Loved Fossils Just as Much as We Do, Even Though They May Not Have Fully Understood What They Were

The newly discovered trilobite may be hundreds of millions of years old, but its use 2,000 years ago as an amulet is the focus of a new archaeological finding

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

On view at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, this specimen of the extinct species unlocks an evolutionary mystery

Artist's impression of the Chicxulub impact.

Science

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

The famous impact 66 million years ago kicked up soot into the atmosphere that played an even bigger role in blocking sunlight than experts had realized

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

On April 22, 1970, Americans pledged environmental action for the planet. Here’s what scientists and we, the global community, have done since

Stromatolites at Lake Thetis, Western Australia

Science

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

Debate over Earth’s oldest fossils fuels the search for our deepest origins