Begin or complete your exploration of the resources of Texas Memorial Museum by visiting our outdoor exhibits on the grounds of the museum.
The outdoor classroom is a nice shady spot for a pre- or post-visit picnic. These seats are scaled up models of a vertebra from a mosasaur, a large marine reptile that lived in the Cretaceous Period.
Our saber-toothed cat sculpture greets visitors at our main entrance.
The Dino Pit is a paleontology exhibit at Austin Nature and Science Center (ANSC) located in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. A collaboration between Austin Parks and Recreation and Texas Memorial Museum, this exhibit features an outdoor dig site where children can dig for cast replicas of many important specimens from the university's vertebrate paleontology collections.
When geologist Glen Evans left his job at The University of Texas at Austin because his salary would not support a family of four, columnist and author J. Frank Dobie wrote of his friend, "Considering the stores and powers of his mind, the way the elements are mixed in him, and his energy, I would regard him as being worth more to a university than any million-dollar building…" Often referred to as the "Dean of Texas Paleontology," Evans left a fine legacy of pioneering research. Read more about his remarkable achievements.
Located within Zilker Botanical Garden, the Hartman Prehistoric Garden is considered one of the most beautiful gardens in Texas. The garden features cycads, ferns, and other ancient plants with lineages related to species of the Cretaceous Period. Highlighting the garden is a bronze ornithomimid (bird mimic) dinosaur sculpted by former Texas Memorial Museum exhibits designer John Maisano.
