From the dinosaurs to the more recent discovery of DNA, this museum contains millennia of scientific history.
The Texas Memorial Museum offers visitors a chance to see natural and cultural artefacts through millennia of Texas history. Located on Trinity Street on the campus of the University of Texas, the Texas Memorial Museum is open seven days a week except for national holidays and is sometimes closed when Texas is playing a football game at home.
It's free to enter the Texas Memorial Museum, and as a part of the Texas National Science Center, the museum houses more than five million specimens. The exhibits are displayed in chronological order from dinosaurs to contemporary biological research. The museum spans four floors, so be sure to set aside a few hours to take in and explore the museum completely.The first floor of the Texas Memorial Museum is the Hall of Geology and Palaeontology. Here visitors can see more than 500 fossils from dinosaurs and other prehistoric life forms. The local artefact found here is a nine-metre shark-like creature called a mosasaur, from the Cretaceous period, which was found in the nearby Onion Creek.
Head up to the second floor, where visitors will see a Texas pterosaur suspended in flight. It is the biggest flying creature ever found by fossil hunters, and it was dug up by scientists from the University of Texas. This massive beast has a wingspan of twelve metres—it is quite a thing to behold. The rest of the second floor is constantly changing exhibits vary from dinosaur specimens to locally collected gem and mineral displays.
On the third floor, visitors will learn all about native Texas animals by examining the many mounted reptiles, mammals, birds, and amphibians. On the fourth floor, visitors can explore seven modern issues and developments in the scientific community relating to biology and the theory of evolution.
Take your curiosity outside and discover the outdoor exhibits as well, which include the Glen Rose dinosaur tracks. The Sarah and Ernest Butler Outdoor Classroom has numerous seats modelled after mosasaur vertebrae, and it is the perfect place to have a picnic lunch.
