University of Nebraska State Museum, Natural history museum in Lincoln, United States
The University of Nebraska State Museum is a natural history museum on the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a focus on paleontology, wildlife, and earth sciences. It occupies several floors of Morrill Hall, a historic building at the center of campus, and displays fossils, mounted animals, and specimens related to the natural history of the Great Plains.
The museum was founded in 1871, making it one of the oldest scientific institutions in the state of Nebraska. Decades of university-led fossil expeditions across the Great Plains gradually built up the collection that visitors can see today.
The museum sits at the heart of the University of Nebraska campus and draws visitors of all ages, from school groups to families from across the state. The giant mammoth skeleton displayed in the main hall has become a widely recognized symbol of the city of Lincoln.
The museum is inside Morrill Hall on the main university campus and is easy to reach on foot from downtown Lincoln. Allow at least a couple of hours for the visit, as the exhibits cover several floors and reward a slow, careful look.
The museum holds one of the largest assembled mammoth skeletons in North America, a specimen that has been on display in Morrill Hall for decades. What many visitors do not know is that a large part of the fossil collection was dug up during student-led field expeditions organized directly by the university.
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