A New Era, A New Approach

How to Become a Fossil invites visitors to spin a wheel and try their luck at becoming a fossil in an animated game. They learn their fate – and how hard it is to enter the fossil record – as they watch their organisms sink into the mud, get eaten, or decompose.

At a large interactive station overlooking the gallery, Connect Today to Deep Time, visitors explore a digital version of the entire hall. Tapping elements in the scene brings them to life: the T-rex skeleton transforms it into an artfully-rendered dinosaur whose powerful jaws chomps through the bones of a Triceratops. Another tap triggers an asteroid to cross the screen, engulfing it in smoke, revealing the moment when the dinosaurs met their demise.

The Evolution Through Deep Time interactive enables visitors to explore the surprising connections between all life on Earth. Through open exploration and guided games, the visitor places organisms on the tree of life and discovers common ancestors in a beautifully illustrated and responsive animation.

Films throughout the Hall depict moments when Earth’s life hung in the balance during major extinctions. In the Age of Humans gallery, visitors are challenged to see how humans are causing rapid and unprecedented changes to our planet. A multi-screen show, How Are We Changing the Planet?, features inspirational stories of people acting locally to address sinking bayous in Louisiana, heat waves in Chicago, and destructive farming practices in Texas.

The animation, Your Body Through Time, invites visitors on a journey through evolution guided by a life-size, charismatic, 3-D host.