Other Dioramas

Milstein Hall of Ocean Life

Fully restored in 2003, the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life houses many dioramas, including of the two-story Andros Coral Reef diorama. The hall also features 14 dioramas on the lower level, including the popular depictions of elephant seals on Guadalupe Island, a school of leaping porpoises, polar bears, northern sea lions from Alaska's Pribiloff Island, and the iconic battle between the sperm whale and giant squid. On the second floor, three of the Museum's historic dioramas depict life in the primordial oceans of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic periods. This hall is also home to the iconic life-size blue whale model suspended from the ceiling overhead. While not part of a true diorama, following the 2003 renovation the whale now floats in a "virtual ocean," immersed in the dynamic and magnificent life of the ocean through dramatic effects created by lighting, video, and sound. Accompanied by the songs of whales, an array of shimmering blue lights placed behind a skylight adds to the visitor experience of being submerged in the depths of the sea. More...

Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest diorama
Hall of Biodiversity

The diorama—one of the largest museum dioramas in the world—re-creates in meticulous detail a portion of the rain forest of the Central African Republic. Expanding on the Museum's magnificent legacy of re-creations of place, the diorama employs high-resolution imagery, video, and sound to create a life-like environment in which animals appear to move through the forest and lighting effects simulate the forest ambiance at different times of day. In addition, the rain forest is shown in three different states: pristine, altered by natural forces, and degraded by human intervention. Visitors are invited behind the glass wall that traditionally forms a barrier between viewers and the scene depicted, and are thus immersed in this ever-changing, diverse, severely threatened ecosystem. More...

Liaoning Forest diorama

from the exhibition Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries (currently traveling)

A major highlight of the Dinosaurs exhibition is an enormous, 700-square-foot walk-through diorama of China's Jehol Forest—the most detailed re-creation of a prehistoric environment ever attempted. Visitors have a chance to stroll back in time through the forest as it existed 130 million years ago during the Mesozoic era and come face to face with the creatures that lived there. Considered one of the most important fossil areas in the world, the Jehol Forest, which existed in northeast China's Liaoning Province, has yielded an abundance of new discoveries, revealing a rich diversity of specimens that have been exceptionally well-preserved. For the Jehol Forest diorama, the Museum created multiple scientifically accurate, fleshed-out, life-size models of more than 35 different species of dinosaurs, reptiles, early birds, insects, and plants, including several species never before reconstructed, ranging from a pigeon-sized feathered Confuciusornis to a formidable six-foot-tall feathered Beipiaosaurus. More...

Hall of North American Forests

Opened in 1957, this hall presents various forest ecosystems and the biodiversity of life they support. The focus is instead on ecology and the environment as a system rather than on a specific species. The largest diorama in this hall is that of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, an area that features some of the last remaining temperate rain forests in North America. This area gets 12-14 feet of rain a year, making it lush with dense foliage. Mosses and ferns carpet the forest floor beneath trees 300 feet tall; this habitat is home to such species as firs, hemlocks and black-tailed deer. Also in this hall, traveling through scale rather than time, a diorama of the forest floor represents a cross section of the soil, enlarged to 24 times its actual size. This scene demonstrates the process of decomposition, by which natural debris is broken down into new substances, which exist in the soil as nutrients. While bacteria and fungi help break the debris down, so do some of the creatures re-created in the diorama.

Birds of the World Hall

Although some bird species cross the boundaries of oceans and mountains and a few are found worldwide, each area of the world has its indigenous birds. The Birds of the World Hall shows some major faunal areas and their characteristic birds. Its purpose is to give visitors an idea of the diversity of birds and an appreciation of their graceful presence in every corner of the globe. A presence often threatened, as the extinct Dodo specimen seems to suggest.

Whitney Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds

This hall's dioramas represent the bird life of the far-flung islands of the Pacific. These islands are geologically diverse, ranging from low coral to high mountains. One of the dioramas represents the bird population of the Guano Islands, named after the birds excretion, or guano, that coats the islands rocks. Boobies, cormorants, pelicans, and terns are attracted by the huge population of fish in the area. Specimens ranging from New Guinea to Galapagos Islands can also be found in the hall.