15 December 2018

15. University of California Museum of Paleontology

Location: Berkeley, California
Website: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/
The Collections: UCMP is the premier collection of fossils on the West Coasts, and I've spent more hours than I can count delving through its drawers of specimens from North and South America and Australia. The collections go far beyond Cenozoic mammals, though, and encompass fossils from across the globe and throughout geologic time scale.
The Exhibits: UCMP is one of the world's great research collections and the outwork conducted by the staff and students there is exceptional, but the museum's public displays are fairly minimal. There are a few fossils on exhibit in the main hall of the massive Valley Life Sciences building; you'll know you're there when see the Tyrannosaurus cast in the stairwell. If you finding yourself wanting to see more natural history exhibits in the Bay Area, I also strongly recommend the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

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