New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Old Town Albuquerque is the state's flagship natural history and science institution, covering 3.6 billion years of New Mexico's geological and biological history across more than a dozen permanent exhibit halls. The museum holds particular distinction for its dinosaur collection: New Mexico is among the most productive states in the nation for Cretaceous and Jurassic fossil finds, and the museum displays specimens of Coelophysis — the state fossil, a small carnivorous theropod — alongside casts and originals of large carnosaurs, titanosaurid sauropods, and the diverse Cretaceous fauna unique to what is now the American Southwest. The Seascape Gallery explores the interior seaway that covered present-day New Mexico during the Cretaceous period, displaying a massive mosasaur skull and several mounted marine reptile skeletons. The flagship Journey Through Time exhibit leads visitors chronologically from the Proterozoic era through the Pleistocene Ice Age across a sequence of diorama-rich halls blending mounted specimens, fossil casts, life-size models, and interactive multimedia. A Space Science wing covers New Mexico's significant role in rocketry, aerospace testing, and radio astronomy centered on the Very Large Array. The museum also operates an IMAX-format DynaTheater and a full-dome Lodestar Astronomy Center planetarium, both available with a separate ticket upgrade. The facility sits adjacent to the Old Town Albuquerque plaza at 1801 Mountain Rd NW, and is connected by a short walk to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, allowing a combined museum district half-day visit.