Extreme Mammals

This exhibit is now closed. See current exhibits.

The biggest, smallest, and most amazing mammals of all time!

Extreme Mammals explores the surprising and extraordinary world of mammals. Featuring spectacular fossils, skeletons, taxidermy, and vivid reconstructions, the exhibition examines the ancestry and evolution of a vast array of species, living and extinct. It showcases creatures both tiny and huge who sport such weird features as oversized claws, massive fangs, bizarre snouts, and amazing horns. And it examines what might be the most extreme mammals of all−ourselves. 

What’s extreme about mammals?

How about a four-ton tongue? A tooth bigger than you? A bee-sized bat? A whale with legs or a mammal without legs? Mammals are everywhere, from Arctic ice to the hottest desert. An amazing assortment of mammals swim, glide, burrow, run, hop, climb trees, or even fly. When you look at the entire 200 million year history of mammals—including some that ate dinosaurs—you’re guaranteed to find surprises.

Highlights

• Stand beneath a life-sized model of Indricotherium, the largest land mammal that ever lived.
• Explore interactives demonstrating the amazing variety of mammal teeth, skin, and locomotion.
• Examine a diorama featuring mammals and plants that flourished in the swamps of the high Arctic 50 million years ago.
• Gaze up at skeletons of aquatic mammals suspended from the ceiling.
• Crawl inside the armor of a Glyptodont, an extinct car-sized relative of armadillos.
• Discover some of the extreme mammals that live (or lived) in Utah and see three extreme fossil skulls from NHMU's collection.