Texas Natural Science Center
The Texas Natural Science Center is a research unit of the College of Natural Sciences and the home of the college’s ichthyology, herpetology, entomology, and paleontology collections. The center is dedicated to encouraging awareness and appreciation of the interplay of biological, geological, and environmental forces as they affect our world.
The center’s exhibits and public programs are based on its world-renowned research collections of 5.7 million specimens in the disciplines of paleontology, geology, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, and diatomology. Most specimens in the collections are from Texas, and many are unique and irreplaceable. The center is comprised of four units: the Texas Memorial Museum, the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, the Nonvertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, and the Texas Natural History Collections.
The public aspect of the center is the Texas Memorial Museum, located on the main University campus at 2400 Trinity Street. All of the museum’s exhibits and public programs are based on the center’s research collections, including the largest flying creature ever found, the Texas Pterosaur, with a wingspan of forty feet; world-famous dinosaur footprints found in Glen Rose, Texas; a thirty-foot Cretaceous mosasaur; reptiles and amphibians from the Permian period of the Paleozoic era; and remains of Ice Age mammals. The museum was constructed with state and federal funds, contributions, and proceeds from the sale of Texas Centennial coins sponsored by the American Legion. It was opened to the public January 15, 1939. In 1959, by legislative enactment, it became part of the University of Texas at Austin.
The museum is open every day except major holidays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm weekdays, from 10:00 am to 4:45 pm Saturday, and from 1:00 to 4:45 pm Sunday. Admission is free.
The museum's first-floor Hall of Geology and Paleontology features displays of rocks, minerals, meteorites, and dinosaurs and other fossil animals, as well as an on-site working paleontology lab where scientists prepare fossil specimens and answer questions from visitors. The second floor showcases some of the museum’s most prized and unusual specimens. The third floor features the contemporary native fauna of Texas, including many of the state’s reptiles, birds, and mammals. The fourth floor currently displays the Explore Evolution interactive learning lab, featuring the work of scientists who are making leading discoveries about the evolution of life.
Three of the center’s research and collection facilities – the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, the Nonvertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, and the Texas Natural History Collections – are located at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus. The entomology and cave invertebrate collections are located at the Lake Austin Centre/Brackenridge Field Laboratory.
The center's collections form the basis of some of the most significant research at the University, providing specimens for undergraduate and graduate courses and for research by faculty members and other professionals around the world. The Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory supports one of the largest professional vertebrate paleontology instruction programs in the world and contains the ninth-ranked collection in the United States, with approximately 250,000 cataloged specimens and 750,000 uncataloged specimens. The Nonvertebrate Paleontology Laboratory contains the sixth largest collection in the United States with more than 4,000,000 specimens, and includes fossils from more than ninety-five percent of Texas counties, rocks, and minerals. The Texas Natural History Collections contain more than one million specimens of fish, reptiles, and amphibians.