Age of Mammals | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Age of Mammals

Age of Mammals tells an epic evolutionary story that spans 65 million years! But its theme can be distilled into just six words: Continents move. Climates change. Mammals evolve.

They’re six loaded words, however. “It's the first permanent museum exhibit to trace mammal evolution — from the extinction of large dinosaurs to the rise of humans — within the context of epochal changes in the Earth’s geology and climate,” says Dr. John Harris, lead curator for the exhibition. “We believe this new way of telling our story is not only exciting, but it also provides a powerful message. It puts climate change and human impact on our environment into the context of long-term geological and evolutionary processes.”

Seeing the Big Picture

Our diorama halls are iconic, and they’re not going anywhere. But in addition to providing these snapshots, these habitats at one moment in time, the Museum is newly focused on telling a more complicated, "big picture" story of mammal life. We want to tell our visitors what we know about mammal evolution in a larger context, and why we
know it.  

Mammal Diversity

Age of Mammals features a total of 240 specimens, including 38 articulated mammal skeletons, illustrating to visitors the wondrous diversity of mammal life as it's evolved over the past 65 million years. Taxidermy specimens of extant species include a sprinting cheetah alongside a similarly posed cheetah skeleton, an alpaca, a zebra and more!