uc berkeley fossil tour

Choose one of the four sections to begin learning about the many things fossils can teach us.

When you have explored all four sections, exit here .

UC Museum of Paleontology

Established in 1921, the mission of the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) is to investigate and promote the understanding of the history of life and the diversity of the Earth's biota through research and education. UCMP is an active center of research and houses the largest paleontological collection of any university museum in the world. By fully integrating its research, teaching, and educational outreach with effective uses of technology, UCMP fulfills its mission of increasing the understanding of all aspects of Earth history and biodiversity--from the first appearance of life on Earth to current genetic patterning in populations. The Museum's well-curated and data-based collections include both fossils and modern organisms, and encompass past and present biodiversity from all continents of the world, representing the broad geographic research by UCMP faculty, staff, and students.

Research within the Museum of Paleontology focuses primarily on the evolutionary history, interactions, and relationships of species with their environments. Because this requires a multidisciplinary integration across a wide variety of spatial and temporal scales, this research contributes broadly to fields outside of paleontology, including: systematics, evolution, development, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, paleoceanography, paleobiogeography, and paleoenvironmental analysis. UCMP research is supported by state-of-the-art facilities. The Museum has laboratories for activities including fossil preparation, molding and casting of fossils, histological studies of living and fossil tissues, phylogenetic analysis, and molecular biology. The Molecular Phylogeny Laboratory (shared with the University and Jepson Herbaria) is a state-of-the-art laboratory for the preparation and sequencing of molecular data used for the reconstruction of the history of life. A separate evolutionary development molecular facility is also housed within UCMP. The Museum serves the University community in various research projects and provides support for instruction at Berkeley and other UC campuses. Our unique synthesis of research, teaching, outreach, and collections allows in-depth insights into the history and evolution of life. In addition, the collections are used by paleontologists, biologists and geologists throughout the world, and through generous bequests to the Museum there are several funds that support graduate student research and promote research on the Museum's collections by visitors. UCMP further serves a broader audience through two publications: PaleoBios, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and UCMP News, a newsletter about UCMP's programs and research.

UCMP has a long history of public outreach. Programs include teacher workshops, lecture series, curriculum development, an annual open house, community college partnerships and four award-winning web sites. UCMP pioneered innovative uses of the web to share knowledge. After nearly 20 years of experimentation and development, the current UCMP websites average ~ 5 million page accesses per month and together have > 6,000 pages devoted to the explanation of topics in evolution, paleontology, biodiversity, geology, the history of science, and related topics. UCMP also has a long history of providing professional development opportunities and classroom resources for teachers in evolution and related topics. These include short courses for teachers and workshops in local school districts and presentations at professional meetings of the California Science Teachers Association, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the National Science Teachers Association, Geological Society of American, and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists. UCMP has an advisory board of educators that help develop, pilot and evaluate programs designed for K-12 and undergraduate classrooms. Combining the scientific expertise of UCMP with the experience and expertise in teacher professional development, UCMP has successfully developed a suite of interactive, inquiry-based digital modules. Understanding Evolution, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, provides content and resources for teachers, their students, and the general public to increase their understanding of the processes, patterns, and importance of evolution. Understanding Science, also funded by NSF, accurately portrays what science is and how it really works, focusing on strengthening the teaching of the nature and process of science in grades K-16. The newest UCMP web resource, Understanding Global Change, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, explores the causes of and solutions to climate and environmental change, and invites users to construct models to explain what drives global change.

Photos © UC Museum of Paleontology

Charles Marshall Email [email protected] Telephone (510) 642-1821

Lisa White Email [email protected] Telephone (510) 664-4966

1101 VLSB, Berkeley, CA 94720 - 4780

Did Dome-Headed Dinosaurs Sport Bristly Headgear?

Losing Track of (Geologic) Time at the UC Museum of Paleontology

Our earliest primate ancestors rapidly spread after dinosaur extinction

Rare fossil bird deepens mystery of avian extinctions

University of California Museum of Paleontology

Top ways to experience nearby attractions

• Downtown Berkeley • 10 min walk

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Also popular with travelers

University of California Museum of Paleontology - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Mon - Fri 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• (0.34 mi) Graduate Berkeley
• (0.24 mi) The Faculty Club Hotel
• (0.35 mi) Berkeley City Club
• (0.50 mi) Hotel Shattuck Plaza
• (0.32 mi) Easton Hall
• (0.06 mi) Free Speech Movement Cafe
• (0.22 mi) Thai Basil Cuisine
• (0.23 mi) King Pin Donut
• (0.23 mi) Northside Cafe
• (0.37 mi) Gather

Berkeleyside

Nonprofit news. Free for all, funded by readers.

State Supreme Court hears People's Park case | KPFA turns 75 | Four candidates vy for City Council District 4 | Watch Annie on Cal falcon cam

Photos: Meet the dinosaurs inside the UC Museum of Paleontology

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

In one corner of the mazelike, climate-controlled room at the heart of UC Berkeley, a triceratops horn rests on a shelf a few inches above the floor. The massive skull of a baleen whale that lived some 15 million years ago is fixed to a wooden plank bolted to a nearby wall. There are drawers upon drawers stuffed with skeletons and labeled with locations that dot the globe.

This story was produced by UC Berkeley and first published on Berkeley News

Anyone who enters the Valley Life Sciences Building has likely seen the replica  Tyrannosaurus rex  on the ground floor, in the circular stairwell .  It’s but one of dozens of pieces on  display just outside the museum doors,  like the skeleton of  Stenopterygius , a Jurassic marine reptile.

But it’s farther inside the museum where tens of millions of years of history unfold among the movable shelves of the  University of California Museum of Paleontology.  Normally off-limits to all but select researchers, the space is home to hundreds of thousands of pieces that range from massive dinosaur bones to minuscule invertebrate fossils. The state’s designated museum for California fossils, it is home to massive aquatic predators discovered in Shasta County and scores of specimens plucked from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.

Juan Liu, an assistant museum curator and assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, recently guided a tour through part of the collection. 

It’s difficult not to get turned around in the floor-to-ceiling cabinets. 

It’s easy — perhaps encouraged — to get lost in the vastness of geologic time.

" * " indicates required fields

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Stay connected to Cal.

Subscribe to our monthly email newsletter, The Cal Connection.

• Savings & Discounts
• Update Contact Info
• Membership FAQs

Benefit of the Week

The graduate wine collective.

• History & Tradition
• Our Programs
• Distinguished Alumni
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
• Alumni House
• Shop CAA Gear

Stay Connected to Cal

• Career Services
• Alumni Chapters
• Student Resources
• Scholarships

Cal for All: Building an Inclusive STEM Pipeline: From Education to Industry

Special guests include Dr. Tsu-Jae King Liu , Dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering and Colette Patt ’85, Ph.D. ’95 , Assistant Dean for DEIBJ, UC Berkeley College of Computing .

• Make a Gift
• Give Scholarships

• Cal Discoveries Travel
• Destinations
• Experiences
• Tour Lecturers
• Travel News

Upcoming Tour

Total solar eclipse: texas [singles: waitlist or paired share].

• Camps & Experiences
• Accommodations
• Group Rentals & Weddings
• Year-Round Cabins

Your Lair summer adventure is calling.

A great family vacation value.

• All Stories
• The Edge Podcast
• Submission Guidelines
• Class Notes
• About California Magazine

Latest Issue

2023 fall/winter.

• Get Involved
• Camp at the Lair
• California Magazine
• Human Behavior
• Science & Tech

As The Tower Turns 100: A Peek at the Skeletons in the Closet of Cal’s Campanile

Legend has long engulfed UC Berkeley’s iconic Jane K. Sather Tower—the Cal Campanile , which was completed 100 years ago and is celebrating its centennial this academic year. Perhaps you’ve heard that it contains prehistoric fossils? 

Unlike some other mysterious tales floating around about the Campanile, this one is actually true. Within the tower’s confines lie thousands and thousands of fossils, including those of mammoths, saber-tooth cats, horses, wolves, camels, ground sloths and birds. All are stored in varying states of preservation on the first five floors.

“Some are sitting in open wooden shelving, others are in cardboard file boxes, and the rest are in old storage cases,” says Bob Dundas , department chair and associate professor of vertebrate paleontology at Cal State Fresno, who led a major curatorial project on the fossils when he was a Ph.D. student at Cal in the early ’90s. “The ones that aren’t in cases are covered with a layer of dust literally a quarter of an inch thick.”

The fossils came to Cal in two huge hauls. The first arrived in the first decade of the 20 th century, when the university acquired more than 23,000 fossils, weighing 20 tons, from an excavation at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

“Of course, we don’t call it a tar pit anymore; we call it a tar seep,” Dundas says. “Everybody envisions a bubbling pit of tar, but that’s not the case at all.  What really happened is that petroleum seeped up through this porous sediment, making its way to the surface, and then rainfall runoff would cover the surface of the tar. Animals would go there to drink and get caught in the sediment. You had critters wandering around the landscape for tens of thousands of years and getting stuck in the tar. They’re still getting stuck today—mostly insects, squirrels and birds.”

Initially the fossils were stored in the basement of California Hall. But that was too far from Bacon Hall, home of the Paleontology Department, so they were moved to the Campanile in 1914.

Ten years later the second big haul, 15,000 fossils, arrived from the McKittrick Tar Pits —oops, tar seep—in the Central Valley after the Paleontology Department excavated the site.

From a security standpoint, the Campanile was hardly an ideal storage container.

“When I first came here in 1988, the elevator operator had access to all floors of the Campanile,” says Dundas. “They would stop at the floor, the doors would open, and the operator would say, ‘And here we have fossils from the La Brea Tar Pits.’ They’d allow people to walk out onto the floor, and we know specimens disappeared. Plus, if you walked up and down the stairwells, the doors weren’t locked, so you had access to all floors that way, too.

“Today, the elevator operator lacks access to those floors, and the doors on the stairwell are locked. We really have no idea what could have walked out in somebody’s pocket, but it’s clear some material was taken. How many specimens disappeared by the public taking them? How many were traded to other museums? How many were taken by newly-minted Ph.D.s when they left for their new jobs? We don’t know, and there are no records.”

The remaining fossils sat in the Campanile, unused and unstudied, for decades, until new technology came along to reveal their secrets.

“Most of the original work focused on identifying what species the animals were,” says Dundas. “But by the 1940s, much of the work that could be done on them had been done. It took the development of new technology such as accelerated mass spectrometry, which allows researchers to pinpoint a fossil’s date to within 50 or 100 years, and stable isotope analysis, which can tell you things like what they ate. We can figure out if a carnivore was eating a specific kind of herbivore, and that’s really neat because you can’t ask the animal, ‘What did you have for dinner?’ “

Today, the fossils are in constant use by scholars and teachers both on campus and beyond, including UC Berkeley integrative biology professor Leslea Hlusko , whose team of undergraduates, supervised by Ph.D. candidate Oliver Rizk, studied hundreds of fossils of the dire wolf—a large, extinct species unrelated to the present-day gray wolf.

“We paired the students into three groups: two pre-dental students who measured the teeth, two who were interested in long bones like femurs, and two who were interested in cranial variation,” Hlusko says. “Now we’re comparing our findings to living organisms. If their genetic development is similar, that tells us a lot. And if it’s different, that tells us a lot, too.”

“It was definitely gross,” says Rizk, who got his Ph.D. in 2012 and now teaches biology at the University of Southern California. “The Campanile is not the ideal location to store this kind of material. There had been enough moisture in there so that the bones and skulls had a fine layer of green fuzz on them. And unless you know what species of fungus you’re dealing with, you risk damaging the bones. So we carefully washed them with toothbrushes and water and put them in the courtyard of the Valley Life Sciences Building to dry in the sun. It was not only for research purposes; we also acted as curators to preserve them for the next generation.”

Professors such as Hlusko often say that one of the rewards of being at Berkeley is working with undergraduates eager to be apprentices in the scientific process, allowing them to blur the line between teaching and research. “And what makes the Campanile fossils such a beautiful collection is that there are so many of them,” she says, “so we can get at the biology so much easier.”

Share this article

Related articles.

WATCH: The Bones of the Campanile

There’s more to dusty old bones than meets the eye. For more on what fossils can teach us about climate change and evolution, watch Part 2, What’s in a Fossil?

WATCH: What’s In A Fossil?

Want more? For a behind-the-scenes tour of the ancient bones of the Campanile, check out Part 1 here.

Cal Architecture Grad Asks Fellow Alums to Urge Toy Titan: LEGO My Campanile

Michael Lin liked playing with Legos as a kid. In fact, he couldn’t get enough of the strangely compelling little plastic building blocks. Literally. “My family wasn’t wealthy, so I never had as many as I wanted,” Lin recalls. “But I was fascinated with them, with their possibilities.” He wasn’t—or isn’t—alone, of course. The toys […]

Our Partners

Sun, Oct 22

NE corner of Oxford St & Center St

Guided Walk - The Trees of UC Berkeley

Join arborist Eric Folmer for a walking tour of the interesting trees of the UC Berkeley campus.

Time & Location

Oct 22, 2023, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

NE corner of Oxford St & Center St, Oxford St & Center St, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

About the event

Friends of the Urban Forest invites you to our first-ever guided walk in the East Bay! The University of California, Berkeley campus has a rich history of tree plantings going back to its founding in 1868. This walking tour will visit a variety of native and introduced trees and talk about their natural and local history. We'll take a look at designated landmark trees including the tallest grove of hardwood trees in North America and the story of how they were measured. We'll compare the three kinds of true cedars and the three kinds of redwoods including the story of the "living fossil" dawn redwood and much more. We'll meet at the UC Berkeley sign at the northeast corner of Oxford Street and Center Street -- an easy four-minute walk from the Downtown Berkeley BART station.

This Guided Walk is free for students.

Note that our Guided Walks happen rain or shine, and tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded.

Standard Ticket

+$0.63 service fee

Early Bird Ticket

+$0.50 service fee

Share this event

Schedule a Tour

Youth and adult docent-led tours.

The UC Botanical Garden offers docent-led tours for youth and adults. A guided tour provides a deeper experience at the Garden and is a wonderful and educational way to experience our collection. Please read on below for more information about our tour offerings and topics. 

If you would like a docent-led tour, you must submit a request by the 15th of the month prior to your desired tour date . For example, if you would like a tour in May, you must submit a request by April 15th. Thank you for your understanding!

To submit a request for a docent-led tour, please fill out the Request Form below: 

Docent-Led Tour Request Form

Please note that we  do not schedule groups on Tuesdays or Weekends. 

If cost is a barrier for your group, please contact [email protected]. We do consider requests for free or reduced-rate admission on a case-by case basis.

All tour fees include Garden admission. There is a $100 minimum to schedule a group tour.  

Groups may enjoy a picnic lunch in the Garden with prior approval.

Tours are given rain or shine. Come prepared for the weather. The Garden is located in a canyon with a variety of elevations and terrain, including paved paths and unpaved gravel paths. We can plan tour routes to accommodate the mobility needs of tour participants. Please email [email protected] for questions about accommodations for your group.

Youth tours require sufficient adult chaperones to ensure students are supervised by an adult at all times. Adult chaperones are provided free admission for docent-led tours. We require the following ratios for number of adult chaperones to students. Ideally, groups will also have one “floater” adult in addition to the minimum ratio:

• (1) adult per (4) pre-K students
• (1) adult per (5) K-3rd Grade students
• (1) adult per (6) 4th-8th Grade students
• (1) adult per (8) High School students

Tour Topics and Offerings

Plants of the World 

Explore the Garden’s incredible diversity of plants from six continents, including environments as diverse as deserts, redwood forests, and wetlands. Plants are arranged naturalistically in the Garden according to region of origin – Asia, Australasia, California, Eastern North America, Mediterranean, Mexico/Central America, Deserts of the Americas, South America, and Southern Africa – allowing visitors to travel the world of plants. Each tour features the Garden’s seasonal highlights and unique collections.

Tours are generally 1 hour. For adult tours, we provide one docent for every 10 people. 

Docents of the UC Botanical Garden can tailor tours to fit the needs, interests, and age or grade level of your group. Tours provide a fun, educational activity for summer day camps and youth groups, as well as students. Youth tours are aligned with California State Education Standards. Teacher materials are available with some tours and will be included with your confirmation and invoice.

If this is your first visit to the Garden, we highly recommend selecting Discovering Flowers and Plants for K-12 groups and Plant Wonders for PreK Groups. 

Plant Wonders: a Sensory Walk Use all five senses to experience nature in the Garden. Touch, look, listen, smell, and taste as you investigate plants from around the world. Learn about roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, and the life cycles of plants.

*For Pre-K Tours, all children must be at least 4 years of age at the time of the tour.

Discovering Flowers and Plants Develop your powers of observation as you explore plant communities from around the world. Why are there so many kinds of plants? How do their differences help them survive in their diverse environments? Discover the purpose of a flower – what the flower attracts, how, and why.

Seasonal Theme options for Discovering Flowers and Plants

Pollinators in the Garden (Best in spring and summer) The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds you can observe in the Garden are just some of the world’s 200,000 species of pollinators. Discover how insects, birds, bats, and wind are essential in the life cycles of many plants and crops.

Plant Travelers (Best in fall) Can plants really travel? Marvel at botanical fruit and seed adaptations, such as slingshots, parachutes, hitchhikers, helicopters and other mechanisms, that propel plant seeds around the Garden.

Patterns in Nature: Math in the Garden Look closely at nature – trees, leaves, cones, cacti, ferns, flowers, honeycomb, and more. Discover geometric shapes, angles, symmetry, and patterns, even fractals and Fibonacci numbers! Learn how nature’s mathematical designs and patterns are adaptations helping plants to survive.

Trees in the Garden How are trees different from other plants? How do they adapt to their environments, make food from sunlight, grow, and reproduce? In what ways are they essential to life on our planet? Visit trees from around the world, including the kinds of trees that lived when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and examples of the world’s tallest and most massive trees.

California Ecosystems and Habitats Visit the Garden’s outstanding collection of California native plants. Explore plant communities including alpine fellfield, chaparral, coastal dune, desert, pine-oak woodland, pygmy forest, redwood forest, serpentine, and vernal pool. Compare the characteristics that allow plants to thrive in the Golden State’s unique ecosystems.

California Natives: Plants and People Explore the creative ways California Indians have used plants in their everyday lives for food, shelter, clothing, tools, fiber, medicine, even music, toys and games. Which parts of the plant were used – roots, stems, leaves, seeds, bark – and why? We’ll examine California’s native plants and replicas of Indian artifacts to discover the plant knowledge, customs, and skills of California’s earliest peoples.

Evolution: Plants through Time Journey through time from a barren earth 4.5 billion years ago to the astounding diversity of plants and animals today. Examine fossil evidence and discover plants in our collection that are relicts of ancient plants. See the kinds of plants dinosaurs might have eaten. Learn how plants have adapted over millions of years to a changing earth and climate, and have made it possible for other species to evolve.

© 2022 UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley

Campus tours

What i love about being a campus ambassador (other than giving tours).

When I was first interested in the Campus Ambassador role, I figured giving tours was the entire job. I had no idea of all the other roles, or as I like to call them, side quests, that tack onto the title. We cover a vast range of operations, ranging from running the Campanile, staffing the Koret Visitor Center, and executing large community events. While I love giving tours, I’ve really enjoyed dabbling in these other roles as well. I’m still pretty new to “campus ambassadoring” but here’s what has stuck out to me so far.

Learning about Berkeley ...

• Read more about What I Love About Being a Campus Ambassador (Other Than Giving Tours)

Free Guided Walking Tours

We offer free 90-minute accessible walking tours of the campus seven days a week, rain or shine. Applying to Berkeley? Tourist? Nostalgic alum? A campus tour is perfect for you! Our expert tour guides are student ambassadors who cover academics, history of the University, health & safety, athletics, student life, and much more.

The tour outlines our residence halls and dining options, but does not...

• Read more about Free Guided Walking Tours

Campus Tours

• Read more about Campus Tours

Berkeley Bucket List – Library Edition

Editor's note: This article was published in 2021. Some changes have taken place at the libraries since the article was published.

I’m on a mission to visit every single one of Berkeley’s 24 libraries during my final year at Cal. As the first month of school comes to a close, I’ve decided to highlight some of these spots that aren’t as popular as, say, Doe or Moffitt. Let’s take a look!

Anthropology Library (Anthropology and Art Practice Building)

The Anthropology Library sits on the second floor of the Anthropology and Art ...

• Read more about Berkeley Bucket List – Library Edition

My College Application Journey (Applying to Colleges, Receiving Admission Letters, and Getting Waitlisted at Cal)

Working at the campanile and meeting many of the newly admitted/waitlisted students, as well as many prospective students looking into colleges and deciding where to apply, I couldn’t help but reminisce back to when I was a high school senior doing the same, and reflecting on how those experiences led to where I currently am today. So that being said, I decided to use this opportunity to share my experiences as a high school junior and senior and how I found the right college for me. I know that not everyone will agree on what type of college they would want to attend, but hopefully, this...

• Read more about My College Application Journey (Applying to Colleges, Receiving Admission Letters, and Getting Waitlisted at Cal)

Answering Questions and Demystifying Negative Stereotypes as a Campus Ambassador at Cal

As a Campus Ambassador at Cal, a major part of my job working at the Campanile and giving tours is answering all the questions that our visiting guests, alumni, and students have to offer. That being said, having just worked my 18th tour and 18th campanile shift, I’ve started to notice that with each shift comes very similar patterns in the questions being asked. And because of that, I wanted to discuss the five most frequently asked questions that I have received (with some responses of which may make Berkeley an even more appealing school to you:)). “Is it true that Cal ...

• Read more about Answering Questions and Demystifying Negative Stereotypes as a Campus Ambassador at Cal

Becoming a Campus Ambassador

Picture this: you’re a freshman at the number one public university in the world. You spend all your free time going to club events and football games, making new friends and truly enjoying your life and where you’re at in it. Three months go by before you remember you kind of need to get a job sometime soon. That was me, I was so wrapped up in the wonders of UC Berkeley, but I couldn’t find a campus job that was equally as exciting.

That is, until a friend of mine told me I would make a good campus ambassador. I spent so long mulling over the application, pouring hours into each...

• Read more about Becoming a Campus Ambassador

So you’ve finished your campus tour… now what?

Unfortunately, our campus tours are limited in scope to only cover the Berkeley campus – there is so much more to see and explore in the surrounding city of Berkeley! Listed below are a few of my favorite places to visit while exploring after your campus tour. Berkeley Thai House Berkeley Thai is a longtime favorite of the students on campus – the outdoor patio provides an excellent ambiance in good weather (which, let’s face it – almost all Berkeley weather is good weather). The entree-side-drink combo is great for eating out on a budget, and the ...

• Read more about So you’ve finished your campus tour… now what?