The Field Museum

Solving mysteries with moss

Tiny plants, like moss, are easy to overlook. They're often as small as an eyelash, and they tend to grow on the ground in dark, wet places. But these small plants sometimes turn out to be big clues ...
The Field Museum

Rice Native Gardens

Museum open Daily 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, last entry 4:00 pm Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day Museum is located at: ...
The Field Museum

Audubon’s Birds of America

Art and science intersect on the three-foot-tall pages of one of the world’s rarest books. Learn about the life of John James Audubon. Soar through the 12-year process of creating these masterpieces ...
The Field Museum

Pokémon Fossil Museum Member FAQs

Field Museum members get special access to Pokémon Fossil Museum, including complimentary exhibition tickets and early preview opportunities before the exhibition opens to the public. Below you will ...
The Field Museum

Ancient Mexican city endured for centuries without extremes in wealth and power

Location, location, location—it’s the first rule of real estate. For a long time, it’s been widely assumed that being close to resources drives settlement patterns, with cities generally founded near ...
The Field Museum

UV light and CT scans helped scientists unlock hidden details in a perfectly-preserved fossil Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx is the fossil that proved Darwin right. It’s the oldest known fossil bird, and it helps show that all birds— including the ones alive today— are dinosaurs. And while the first ...
The Field Museum

Meteorite contains the oldest material on Earth: 7-billion-year-old stardust

Stars have life cycles. They’re born when bits of dust and gas floating through space find each other and collapse in on each other and heat up. They burn for millions to billions of years, and then ...
The Field Museum

Ancient Temple and Theater Discovered in Peru

Field Museum scientist Luis Muro Ynoñán with the carving of a mythological bird creature in La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas. Photo by the Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project A team of ...
The Field Museum

This fossil bird choked to death on rocks, and no one knows why

A fossil only tells part of the story. When an animal’s body is preserved as a fossil, there are often pieces missing, and even a perfectly-preserved body doesn’t tell the whole story of how that ...
The Field Museum

Travel Back to the World's Fair in Our Collection

The four stars on Chicago’s flag represent important events in our city’s history: a fort, a fire, and two fairs. One of those fairs is the World’s Columbian Exposition, which also happens to be a key ...
The Field Museum

Field Museum Alters Cultural Galleries in Response to Updated Federal Regulations

Why are some display cases in this gallery covered? The Field Museum has covered several display cases in the Robert R. McCormick Halls of the Ancient Americas and the Alsdorf Hall of Northwest Coast ...
The Field Museum

Which Dinosaur Bones Are “Real”?

SUE the T. rex is an incredibly complete fossil, and Máximo the Titanosaur is a cast. Here’s why we have both. “Is that real?” This is a question we often hear from visitors as they roam the Field ...