LOS ANGELES, CA.- With the mission to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds, the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County - including the Natural History Museum (NHM), La Brea Tar Pits and William S. Hart Museum - are innovating to open new doors to natural history virtually while physical doors are closed. Think social distancing with dinosaurs and mammoths, and connecting with nature and community science right outside your own door.

NHMLAC Connects visitors can learn about recent paleontological discoveries by NHM scientists including the world’s tiniest dinosaur, explore Los Angeles biodiversity from bugs to bats to birds to LA’s favorite mountain lion P-22, find guides to make their own discoveries and participate in community science projects by observing swifts and snails.

There are opportunities to go behind the scenes with time-lapse videos of exhibition installation including the only T.rex growth series (featuring a baby, juvenile and sub-adult) in any museum and a lion pride diorama in NHM’s iconic African Mammal Hall.

With more than 35 million objects and specimens in their collections, the Museums are also a rich repository for Los Angeles history and culture. NHMLAC Connects highlights objects and stories from the L.A. history department and the Becoming Los Angeles exhibition including a video about the history behind LA street names, a cape worn by Aunt March in the 1949 version of Little Women, and an interview with master ofrenda (altar) maker Ofelia Esparza and her daughter, artist Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, who worked together to create an altar for the City of Los Angeles for display in Becoming Los Angeles.

NHMLAC scientists share fieldwork experiences and discoveries such as an ant-decapitating fly found in Brazil, woolly rhino fossils found in the Himalayas, what it’s like to dig for dinosaurs in Antarctica and research happening at Tarpits of the World, including La Brea Tar Pits, the one-of-a-kind active urban Ice Age excavation site.

Specific family-focused activities include how to make a fossil skull puppet with a clothespin and tips for observing nature outdoors.