goSmithsonian - February 2009 - (Page 39) N AT I O N A L M U S E U M O F N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y Explore the diversity of mammals in the “Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals.” Find unique critters like the pink fairy armadillo and check out the spotted leopard posed high in a tree with its kill. Join Harriet, a life-size chimpanzee sculpture, in the Evolution Theater. Hang out among the mammals gathered at the African savanna water hole, but don’t get wet during the dramatic rainstorm re-creation that visitors can see and hear. View the world as a jaguar does, hunting at night in a South American jungle. PALEONTOLOGY In the “Dinosaur Hall,” gigantic fossilized bones of the creatures that walked the earth as long as 210 million years ago are number one with many visitors. At the center of the hall is the 90foot Diplodocus longus, which was found in Utah in 1923. Don’t miss Tyrannosaurus rex, 40 feet long and still fearsome after 65 million years. The adjacent hall, “Life in the Ancient Seas,” encompasses 542 million years of marine evolution. See fossils of ancient creatures like the ichthyosaur, which lived at the time of the dinosaurs; the ancient whale Zygorhiza kochii, which lived about 38 million years ago; and the Squalicorax, a relative of today’s great white shark. In the “Early Life Hall,” there’s a meteorite that is 4.6 billion years old. Scientists study meteorites like this one because they contain amino acids, which are the cell’s essential building blocks and may have been the source for the organic compounds that kick-started life on our planet. Moving into the “Fossil Plants Hall,” see how the evolution of the first seeds 300 million to 350 million years ago changed life on earth. goSmithsonian.com This Easter Island sculpture has been on view for more than 100 years. It’s now in the Constitution Avenue lobby entrance. CHIP CLARK (2); KEN RAHAIM 39 http://www.goSmithsonian.com
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