The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources.
The museum is an independent, nonprofit institution with approximately 450 full-time and part-time staff, more than 67 volunteers, and a 67-member board of trustees. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate.
In 1967, the museum received 1,151,000 visitors, ranking eighteenth in the List of most-visited museums in the United States. It was the fourth-most-visited U.S. museum of nature and science.TE-AECOM Museum Index for 2022, published March 2023 The museum's official online magazine is called Catalyst.
Education programs
The museum provides programming in six main areas. The exhibitions, Infinity Theater films, lectures, classes, and programs pertain to one or more of the following core subjects: anthropology, geology, anatomy, paleontology, astronomy, and zoology. More than 300,000 students and teachers visit the museum with school groups each year. In addition, the museum has science outreach programs and distance–learning opportunities for families, schools and surrounding communities. The museum also offers ongoing professional training workshops for teachers.
History
In 1868, Edwin Carter moved into a tiny cabin in Breckenridge, Colorado, to pursue his passion, the scientific study of the birds and mammals of the Rocky Mountains. Almost single-handedly, Carter assembled one of the most complete collections of Colorado fauna then in existence.
Word of Carter's collection spread and, in 1892, a group of prominent Denver citizens declared their interest in moving his collection to the capital city for all to see. Carter offered to sell the entire collection for $10,000. The founders also secured a collection of butterflies and moths, and a collection of crystallized gold.
Together, these three collections formed the nucleus of what would become the Colorado Museum of Natural History, officially incorporated on December 6, 1900. After years of preparation and construction, the Colorado Museum of Natural History finally opened to the public on July 1, 1908. John F. Campion, the first president of the board, said in his dedication address, "A museum of natural history is never finished". The first director was hired and quickly recruited staff to build more exhibits and create public programs. By 1918, another wing had opened and research efforts were well underway.
In 1927, a team led by the Colorado Museum discovered two stone projectile points embedded in an extinct species of bison, in Folsom, New Mexico. These Folsom points demonstrated that humans had lived in North America more than 10,000 years ago, hundreds of years earlier than previously believed.
The city of Denver increased its funding for the museum, leading to a name change to Denver Museum of Natural History in 1948. The name was changed again in 2000 to the present Denver Museum of Nature and Science, reflecting the institution's wider focus.
The museum is partially funded by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), which was created by area voters in 1988. It has also attracted large donations from benefactors, such as Morgridge Family Foundation led by philanthropist Carrie Morgridge, which gave $8 million to the museum in 2010, described as being the largest single gift since its founding.
On July 9, 2025, the museum reported that they had a core sample dug up from the parking lot, in order to assess the possibility of utilizing geothermal heating. To the surprise of the museum staff, the sample contained a fragment of a dinosaur fossil 763 feet (233 meters) below the surface. Though unable to identify the species, the staff believe it to be a vertebra of a herbivorous ornithopod. The institution's geology curator wanted to dig up the parking lot to excavate it, but was not allowed to.
Permanent exhibits
Expedition Health
Expedition Health teaches visitors about the human body, including the science of taste. It opened on March 30, 2009, replacing the former Hall of Life. Expedition Health was made in support from Kaiser Permanente.
Space Odyssey
Space Odyssey, which opened in 2003 and underwent a refurbishment in 2020, is about the Universe and our place in it. One major highlight of the exhibit is a full-scale replica of a Mars Exploration Rover, which was formerly found outside the exhibit from around 2004 to around 2016 or 2017. Towards the back of the exhibit is a corridor that features a room with 11,000 bright dots which represent stars in the night sky. This room is connected to the Fantasy Spaceship which is a life sized fantasy spaceship featuring boosters, a large screen that displays the spaceship's current position in the simulation, and a fuel station where visitors can power the ship's light speed boosters. Past the main ship's control room there is a long corridor with 2 rooms and one small "vent" where younger visitors can crawl through. These two rooms consist of a puzzle.
Prehistoric Journey
Prehistoric Journey, which opened in 1995, traces the evolution of life on Earth. Displays include skeletons and skulls of prehistoric animals (synapsids, dinosaurs and others): Dimetrodon, Eryops, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, Edmontosaurus, Maiasaura, Megacerops, Archaeotherium, Hyaenodon, Merycoidodon, Stenomylus, Merycochoerus, Moropus, Dinohyus, Hesperotestudo, Gomphotherium, Synthetoceras and Teleoceras, a sea lily reef diorama from 435 million years ago, a cast/replica skull of the ancient placoderm fish, Dunkleosteus, and a collection of trilobites.
Some fossil bone of a dinosaur in this exhibition was found in 2025 at a depth of 763 feet under the parking lot of the museum, while drilling test for geothermal energy sources.
The entrance to Prehistoric Journey features an animation of the formation which features a constellation of one of the eight secret elves spread throughout the museum.
Wildlife Halls
The Wildlife Halls are animal dioramas showing scenes of daily life of many different animals, one of the largest collections of its type in North America. The Wildlife Halls in the museum are:
Level 3 Wildlife Halls:
Birds of the Americas Species and locations represented in Birds of the Americas Mexico Red-billed tropicbird Heermann's gull Brown noddy American oystercatcher Brown booby Blue-footed booby Magnificent frigatebird British Guyana Hoatzin Scarlet ibis Weld County, Colorado Mallard Pintail Yuma County, Colorado Greater prairie-chicken Holt County, Missouri Snow geese Morgan County, Colorado Bald eagle Monroe County, Florida Great white heron American crocodile Eastern diamondback rattlesnake Tricolored heron Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado Sandhill crane Guatemala Spot-crowned woodcreeper Mountain trogon Blue-throated motmot Rufous-collared robin Guatemala junco Emerald toucanet Green violet-ear Unicolored jay Pink-headed warbler Resplendent quetzal Black-throated jay
Explore Colorado (also known as Explore Colorado: From Plains to Peaks) Species and locations represented in Explore Colorado: From Plains to Peaks Weld County, Colorado Tiger swallowtail Black-billed magpie Virginia rail Dragonfly Yellow-headed blackbird Red-winged blackbird American bittern Common yellow-throat Mallard American avocet Pronghorn antelope Thirteen-lined ground squirrel Wilson's phalarope Black-tailed prairie dog Chestnut-collared longspur Coyote McCown's longspur Wood nymph Horned lark Mountain plover Western meadowlark Uncas skipper butterfly Lark bunting Black-tailed jackrabbit Arapahoe County, Colorado Great blue heron Snowy egret Black-crowned night heron Routt County, Colorado Milbert's tortoiseshell butterfly Orange sulpher butterfly Sage grouse Sage thrasher Nuttall's sheep moth Douglas County, Colorado Scrub jay Nuttall's cottontail Sharp-tailed grouse Rufous-sided towhee Buck moth Bandtailed pigeon Custer County, Colorado Deer mouse Wild turkey Ouray County, Colorado Pine grosbeak Fritillary butterfly Long-horned beetle Blue grouse Phoebus parnassian butterfly Red squirrel or chickaree Brown creeper Dark-eyed junco Warbling vireo Gray jay Summit County, Colorado Marten Least chipmunk Clark's nutcracker Lincoln's sparrow Wilson's warbler White-crowned sparrow Larimer County, Colorado Water pipit Pika Yellow-bellied marmot Phoebus parnassian butterfly Bruce's checkerspot White-tailed ptarmigan Montezuma County, Colorado Green-tailed towhee Tarantula hawk wasp Tarantula Scaled quail Blue-gray gnatcatcher Collared lizard Common bushtit Plain titmouse Piñon jay Eastern fence lizard Piñon mouse Ringtail Douglas County, Colorado Golden eagle Cottontail Sonoran Desert, Arizona Chuckwalla Roadrunner Gila woodpecker Northern flicker Tarantula Gambel's quail Elf owl White-winged dove Common poorwill Peccary Phainopepla Cactus wren Vermillion flycatcher
Northern and Rare Birds (also known as Birds of North America) Species and locations represented in Birds of North America Avery Island, Louisiana Carolina parakeet Ivory-billed woodpecker Aransas County, Texas Whooping crane Johnson County, Iowa Passenger pigeon Ventura County, California California condor Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska Harlequin duck Steller's eider Brant King eider Spectacled eider Common eider Willow ptarmigan Sandhill crane Snow bunting Emperor goose Pacific golden-plover Yellow wagtail Tundra swan Red phalarope Bering Strait, Alaska Black-legged kittiwake Horned puffin Common murre Crested auklet Pigeon guillemot Tufted puffin Least auklet Parakeet auklet Pelagic cormorant Bonaventure Island Gannet Razorbill Atlantic puffin
South America (also known as Sketches of South America) Species and locations represented in Sketches of South America Brazil Brocket White-lipped peccary Howler monkey King vulture Blue-crowned parakeet Monk parakeet Red-headed blackbird Blue-fronted parrot Capybara Pampas deer Scarlet macaw Toddy flycatcher Tapir Swamp deer Orange-fronted parakeet Amazon Cassin's parakeet Scaly-headed parrot Galápagos Sally lightfoot crab Galápagos mockingbird Galápagos marine iguana Galápagos tortoise Galápagos land iguana Vermilion flycatcher Patagonia Guanaco Brazil Greater rhea Giant anteater Maned wolf
Botswana, Africa (also known as Africa-Botswana: Sharing a Fragile Land and Botswana: Safari to Wild Africa) Species and locations represented in Botswana: Safari to Wild Africa Botswana Chacma baboon Rufus-crowned roller Greater kudu Sable antelope Warthog Red-billed francolin Steenbok Plains zebra Northern Botswana Lion Yellow-billed hornbill Botswana Sitatunga Malachite kingfisher Nile crocodile Hippopotamus Dung beetle Cheetah Impala Southern Botswana Gemsbok Zebra white African monarch Brown-veined white Lemon traveler Banded gold tip Broad-bordered grass yellow African orange tip Springbok Red hartebeest Northern Botswana African fish eagle Red lechwe Waterbuck Botswana Bat-eared fox African civet African porcupine Giant eagle owl Ratel or honey badger Spring hare African wildcat Leopard Common duiker Aardwolf Aardvark Cape pangolin
Level 2 Wildlife Halls:
Bears and Sea Mammals (also known as Into the Wild: Bears and Sea Mammals and North America's Bears and Northern Sea Mammals) Species and locations represented in North America's Bears Aleutian Islands, Alaska Brown bear Yakutat, Alaska Glacier bear Gribbell Island, British Columbia Spirit bear Alaska Barren ground grizzly Archuleta County, Colorado Grizzly bear Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Black bear