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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

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

Researchers estimate the T. rex was walking at a speed of roughly 3.4 to 4.5 miles per hour.

Smart News

These Four Giant Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in North Dakota Might Represent the First Trackway Made by an Adult T. Rex Ever Found

A high school teacher first spotted the remarkable trail while volunteering on a paleontological dig. Researchers suspect a hulking, full-grown dinosaur marched through the then-swampy landscape roughly 66.5 million years ago

An artist's rendition of a titanosaur nest. 

Smart News

To Researchers’ Surprise, This Giant Dinosaur Laid Eggs in a Cold Climate

A new study suggests that titanosaurs used rotting vegetation to keep their eggs warm much like crocodiles do today

Scientists studied the fossils of prehistoric relatives of katydids.

Smart News

Scientists Recreated the Long-Lost Chirps of Jurassic Insects. Listen to the Simulated Soundscape of 165 Million Years Ago

With artificial intelligence and careful modeling of fossilized wings, researchers reproduced how some extinct, katydid-like insects might have made noise

Scientists propose that most creatures died within a couple of hours of the asteroid strike, not because of the following years-long global winter.

Smart News

The Dino-Killing Asteroid Strike May Have Transformed Our Planet Into a Hellish Inferno, Charbroiling Most Creatures Within Hours

Based on computer simulations and geologic evidence, scientists propose that the deadly event may have caused global wildfires and trapped heat in the atmosphere, roasting any animal that couldn’t take cover fast enough

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

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

‘Martina and the Bridge of Time’ tells the story of the Isthmus’ formation and evolution through the adventures of a young Panamanian girl

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