California Museums

UC Museum of Paleontology

University of California Berkeley
1101 Valley Life Sciences Building
Berkeley, CA 94720-4780
(510) 642-1821 ucmp.berkeley.edu
ucmp.berkeley.edu/about/publicexhibits.php

With the largest collection of paleontological artifacts of any university museum worldwide, it's no wonder the university's paleontology program is highly-sought after for researchers and students pursuing interests in this field. However, as a visitor there is really only one day per year you get to explore the inner workings of the facilities and programs. Cal Day is set aside on a Saturday in April, usually.

That is not to say you won't be able to visit and view on your own cases and displays in the building halls containing rare specimens. Primarily a research museum it is still worth seeing the limited number of fossil exhibits on display outside of the collection, including a magnificent Tyrannosaurus rex mount and some other dinosaur fossils -- if you happen to be in the area.

First floor of the Valley Life Sciences Building:

• T. rex A freestanding mount of Tyrannosaurus rex is the centerpiece of the atrium.
• Stenopterygius skeleton - Jurassic marine reptile
• Edmontosaurus skull of Edmontosaurus annectans
• Cretaceous fossils and dinosaur material from the Cretaceous of California are in 6 display cases.
• Cretaceous plants in the planters on either side of the entrance to the University and Jepson Herbaria are relatives to ancient plants.

2nd Floor

• Pteranodon has a wingspan approx. 22 feet. It is suspended above T. rex in the circular stairwell.
• Adult Triceratops horridus skull is just inside the BioSciences Library.
• A cast of the smallest Triceratops skull ever found, alongside the adult.
• Parasaurolophus walkeri skull from a crested hadrosaur from the Judith River Formation of Saskatchewan, Canada.
• Archaeopteryx lithographica, the earliest known feathered bird, from the late Jurassic of Germany. \
• A juvenile Maiasaura peeblesorum, a hadrosaur from the Cretaceous.
• Two Medicine Formation of Montana.
• Heterodontosaurus tucki, an early ornithiscian dinosaur from the Triassic of South Africa.
• Campylognathoides liasicus, an early Jurassic pterosaur from Germany.