A (fiberglass) dinosaur watches its young being born. New Mexico Museum of Natural History. Albuquerque. A Dianne Lima photo.
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
I’m not usually a fan of natural history museums. To me, the hybrid between zoo and museum isn’t very informative. The natural history museums I’ve visited tend to overplay the few premium exhibits they have. Once these big attractions have been seen, the visitor is left looking at exhibits displaying a noticeable drop-off in quality. Thus, I wasn’t too excited to visit the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. But, the quality and variety of the museum’s exhibits pleasantly surprised me.
The museum decided to base the bulk of its exhibits around a logical theme: the natural development of New Mexico. The museum’s heart is built around seven rooms that highlight eras in New Mexico’s natural development. These eras are The Earth’s Origins, The Age of Giants, New Mexico’s Seacoast, The Age of Volcanoes, Evolving Grasslands, Cave, and New Mexico’s Ice Age. Each of these rooms has its outstanding attraction. For instance, the Age of Giants room has several dinosaur skeletons, the Age of Volcanoes room has a simulated lava flow under the floor, and the New Mexico’s Ice Age room has a very impressive mammoth skeleton. This layout and the excellent exhibits in the rooms are very conducive for educating visitors on New Mexico’s wide-ranging natural history.
While these seven rooms are literally the center of the museum, there are many other attractions to capture a visitor’s attention. There is a relief map of the earth which shows where the most recent earthquakes have occurred, a fossil center where visitors can watch dinosaur bones being removed from rocks, and a movie theatre showing various nature themed movies. While several of these exhibits are geared toward children, they present enough information to make them attractive to adults as well.
If the typical visitor is anything like I was, then they are pretty ignorant of New Mexico’s geological and zoological history. That ignorance will be dispelled during a visit, because the museum does a great job of showing that New Mexico has an extremely varied natural history. The only downside is the admission price. The cost for entry into most of the museum is $5 for adults and $2 for children ages 3-12. However, getting into the movie theatre costs extra ($6 for adults/$3 for children), as it does to get into the planetarium ($6 for adults/$3 for children) and the Virtual Voyages exhibit ($5 for adults/$3 for children). While there is a discount for buying tickets for multiple exhibits, one could easily spend over $50 for a family of four. Given that price, it is more prudent to seek out other activities in the Albuquerque area. However, if one needs a place to entertain the children for a couple of hours, then the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science is a great place to visit.
The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday except Christmas and Thanksgiving.
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