Exploring Life on Earth

Experience the incredible story of life on Earth and how Museum scientists work to understand, preserve, and even restore our planet's rich diversity of life.

museum dioramasThis exhibit is located on the First Floor of MPM, surrounding the Grand Staircase.

Witness the extraordinary changes of life on Earth dramatically portrayed through life-sized, split-scene habitat dioramas of different environments, past and present, including Montana badlands, a Costa Rican dry forest, and Milwaukee's Menomonee River Valley.

Go behind the scenes to the laboratories of a Natural History Museum, take a virtual tour of Museum collections and labs, touch real fossils, and work with scientists to identify plant and animal species.

Exploring Life on Earth was made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Exhibit Accessibility & Social Stories

Throughout this exhibit, you will find many tactile touch panels and media to expand your learning. The people in the dioramas look very real, but they are not. They are statues made to look real.