San Diego Natural History Museum
At the San Diego Natural History Museum you’ll learn about and appreciate our natural environment. Founded in 1874, the San Diego Society of Natural History is the oldest scientific institution in southern California. The Museum’s exhibitions focus on the unique and bio-diverse southern California region. Current exhibits include Fossil Mysteries, a highly interactive exhibition, explores big themes in science: evolution, extinction, ecology, and Earth processes. Also on exhibit is Coast to Cactus in Southern California. This is a permanent exhibition that takes visitors on a journey through this amazing place we call home. Not only is San Diego one of the nicest places to visit, it’s one of the most interesting places in the world due to its amazing diversity of plant and animal life. The coastline, mountains, deserts, and more – it’s all here, ready to be explored!
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The San Diego Natural History Museum will be the premier collections-based environmental education and natural history research resource in our region. We will provide programs that are timely, user-friendly, and relevant to the real-life needs of the diverse populations of the San Diego-Baja California region today and tomorrow.
***Not only does the museum feature fascinating exhibitions but also a giant-screen Dolby digital 3D theater! See coupon offer
Current Exhibits include:
Hidden Gems
Get to know The Nat’s sparkly side when we reveal more than 100 of the best, brightest, and most spectacular selections from our gem and mineral collection. We’ll be displaying these hidden gems—many of which haven’t been on view before—on every floor of the Museum. They’ll be located right outside the elevators so each time visitors reach a new floor they’ll experience something new.
From the brilliant blue of azurite to deep greens of an emerald, gems and minerals offer some of the most eye-popping colors and forms found in nature—some of them even glow in the dark.
The Cerutti Mastodon Discovery
April 26, 2017 through December 31, 2019
An Ice Age paleontological-turned-archaeological site in San Diego excavated by Museum staff preserves 130,000-year-old mastodon bones, molars, and tusks that show evidence of modification by early humans. Analysis of these finds dramatically revises the timeline for when humans first reached the Americas, according to a paper scheduled to be published in the April 27 issue of the prestigious science journal Nature.
