During your visit to this Gainesville, Florida museum, explore nine permanent exhibits including a butterfly rainforest and several outdoor areas as well temporary exhibits. Also housed in the Florida Museum of Natural History are two gift shops with a variety of difficult-to-find and speciality items.
Indoor Exhibits
Butterfly Rainforest
Step into the Butterfly Rainforest, an oasis with tropical trees and colorful flowering plants amid waterfalls and walking paths. Highlights of the Butterfly Rainforest include hundreds of free-flying butterflies and birds from around the world as well as turtles and fish.
Butterfly Exhibits
Learn about the science behind a butterfly as you explore the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Exhibits. Take a closer look at the life cycle of the butterfly in the Rearing Lab, see thousands of butterfly and moth specimens and photographs on the Wall of Wings, or get a glimpse of the world’s largest research facility devoted to Lepidoptera with more than ten million specimens.
Discovery Room
Live animals, preserved specimens from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s collections and a variety of science resources in the Discovery Room offer plenty of opportunities to learn about the world in which we live. Open drawers to see objects from the museum’s collection such as manatee bones, eggs, shells and butterflies. Discover how different objects are affected by wind in the Wind Tunnel. Animal mounts offer an up close look at Florida birds and mammals.
Explore Research
With research videos, smartboard and touchscreen activities and object cases, Explore Research showcases exciting discoveries and research from the University of Florida. See videos about University of Florida research; learn about the process, relevance and benefits of research in science, technology, medicine, engineering and mathematics; and see items used in the featured research videos.
Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land
Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land explores the last 65 million years of Earth’s history. Within the exhibit you will witness five extinction events described in dioramas that will lead you onto the Florida Platform at about 65 million years ago. As you walk through time, you will witness the fossil history of Florida during the Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs and be visually awed by full skeletal mounts and sculptures. Additionally, Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land includes fossil-related temporary displays about Earth’s Sixth Extinction, a modern crisis caused by humans.
Our Energy Future
In Our Energy Future learn about alternative energy resources, the rooftop solar array that powers part of the museum and more. Highlights of the exhibit include a digital playground where interactive touchscreens allow you to explore ways to conserve energy and save money at home, a giant abacus table that reveals the top eight uses of energy in a typical home in North Central Florida and a solar panel like those used on homes, businesses and other structures.
Museum Collections are the Library of Life
Get a glimpse of the museum’s research and scientific collections, which are recognized as one of the top five research and scientific collections nationwide. Additionally, Museum Collections are the Library of Life offer visitors the opportunity to see how the collection has grown from a small collection of teaching specimens into an international powerhouse for research and education.
Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife
Learn about Florida’s most precious resource, water. Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife includes a hammock forest where you will discover more than 50 different plants and animals from high in the trees, to the forest floor; a northwest Florida cave where you can learn about minerals, hydrology, cave life and the fossils in its limestone layers; and a life-size bog that showcases northwest Florida’s amazing diversity of carnivorous pitcher plants. A Native American trading scene set in 1300 A.D., demonstrates what northwest Florida was like as a major political and cultural crossroads. The exhibit also explores northwest Florida’s tidal marshes and barrier islands.
South Florida People and Environments
South Florida People and Environments invites you to journey through a South Florida estuary to discover why they are one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and how they have supported people for thousands of years. Highlights of the exhibit include a mangrove boardwalk where you can explore the nature of these rich coastal ecosystems, the Fishing Heritage Gallery with artifacts that highlight 6,000 years of fishing along Florida’s Gulf coast and information about the vibrant traditions of the Indian people who live in South Florida today.
Outdoor Areas
Fossil Plant Garden
Outside, take the time to enjoy the Fossil Plant Garden. You will see a fossil tree from Gadsden County Florida that dates back 18 million years and plants with ancient histories from 15 million to 425 million years ago. As you stroll through the garden, panels will reveal the fossil and modern life history of each species.
Florida Wildflower and Butterfly Garden
On the west side of the museum you will find the Florida Wildflower and Butterfly Garden. Explore Life Cycles in Your Garden, an exhibit that showcases four butterflies, the plants they use and how both change over the seasons. Additionally you can stroll along the garden path to discover diverse native wildflowers and observe butterflies and other insects. Interpretive panels along the route feature useful information about Florida butterflies, native plants and how plants support the butterfly life cycle.
Natural Area Teaching Lab Trails
Learn about ecology and biodiversity. The museum’s Natural Area Teaching Lab Trails explore three upland ecosystems and an ecologically engineered stormwater retention basin.
Housed in the Florida Museum of Natural History are two gift shops with a variety of difficult-to-find and speciality items. The Butterfly Rainforest Shop, located near the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit sells beautiful mounted butterflies from around the world; butterfly-and-moth themed fashion accessories, jewelry, wind chimes, home décor items; and many unusual gifts and butterfly-related books, some of which are written by McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity research faculty and staff. At the Museum entrance, is the Collectors Shop where arts and crafts, science and nature kits, jewelry, t-shirts and a wide selection of books covering topics about Florida and the Southeast are available to purchase.
Travel Tip
- Don’t forget your camera. There will be moments you want to capture during your visit to the Florida Museum of Natural History.