Natural Sciences Museum

Overview

A must-see for children and adults! Join us to discover the largest Dinosaur Gallery in Europe, a truly remarkable collection of dinosaurs. Learn about the human body and how it evolved in the Gallery of Humankind and go back in time in the Gallery of Evolution. Admire the magnificent crystals in the Mineral Hall, and experience something new every year by visiting the temporary exhibitions. This year, we will have the chance to see the Antarctica exhibition! Of course we are not just visiting museum, we have arranged not one but two in-depth guided tours for your to fully understand what this top museum has to offer.

The date for this event is to be confirmed, and depends on the corona-virus situation.
Until then you can pre-reserve your spot and we’ll get back to you whenever we know more.

Pictures

The entrance of the museum is well guarded | © Th. Hubin

© RBINS

The king of the museum, the mighty T-Rex | © RBINS - Thierry Hubin

The Plateosaurus Ben | © RBINS - Thierry Hubin

A new species of Allosaurus | © IRNSB - Thierry Hubin

The Cryolophosaurus | © RBINS - Thierry Hubin

© RBINS - Thierry Hubin

The Iguanodons | © RBINS - Thierry Hubin

Learn about Human Evolution | © KBIN : IRSNB

Compare evolution | © IRSNB - Thierry Hubin

The museum is full with interesting things | © IRSNB - Thierry Hubin

Our guide will explain us how humans evolved | © Koen Broos

Learn more about life in Antarctica

Main Galleries

The Museum of Natural History is primarily known for hosting Europe’s largest dinosaur gallery. And not just any gallery, but really outstanding and super impressive. But the museum has much more to offer with the Gallery of Humankind, the Gallery of Evolution, BiodiverCITY, 250 Years of Natural Sciences, the Mosasaur Hall, the Mineral Hall, the Virtual Shell Hall and the Virtual Insect Hall. During our visit you will be able to see them all, although we will focus on 3 of them.

Dinosaurs
With a surface area of over 3000 m2 and dozens of specimens, the Dinosaur Gallery is the largest room in Europe entirely devoted to dinosaurs, their discovery, lives, and evolution. Dinosaurs first appeared nearly 230 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic period. During the Jurassic period, they multiplied and diversified, colonizing every continent. They became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. But did they really disappear? We’re not so sure!

In the gallery, you can see how the Olorotitan died, learn how fossils are formed and challenge a virtual Pachycephalosaurus. You can even listen to the Parasaurolophus’s scream!

Humankind
From Sahelanthropus to Homo sapiens, from embryo to adult: explore the human evolution and body in the ‘Gallery of Humankind – Our evolution, our body’.

To start with, fossils and 3D reconstructions will take you down the branching paths of 7 million years of evolution. Next, interactive tools will reveal the adaptations that set us apart from our predecessors (including a bigger brain and smaller teeth). Then, using simulations, you will explore the marvelous and complex machine that is our body, its development, how it works and what it needs to survive and reproduce (that should get your teenagers interested!).

Mineral Hall
In 1828 crown prince William II of the Netherlands and his wife, the sister of tsar Alexander I, donated 808 Russian rocks and minerals to the Brussels Museum, the precursor of the current Museum of Natural Sciences.

These were the first pieces of our geological collection, which today contains more than 5,000 Belgian and 25,000 foreign pieces (or 80% of the types known worldwide). It includes tens of thousands of twin crystals, 500 cut stones, nearly 140 meteorites (four of which fell in Belgium), wonderful fluorescent minerals and even a very rare sample of lunar rock. Allow yourself to delight in the splendid colours and gorgeous shapes of some of the finest pieces in our collection.

Antarctica Exhibition

Explore the Antarctic as if you were really there! The Antarctica exhibition takes you on an expedition to Adélie Land, on the outskirts of the French Dumont d’Urville base. Are you ready? Start in the changing room where divers prepare before sliding into the frozen water in the Southern Ocean with seals and penguins. Join them in the watery depths teaming with strange and beautiful species. When you resurface, you’ll find yourself in the heart of an icefield, just a few meters from an emperor penguin colony. Take a seat and listen to their calls, observe how they look after their young and watch them huddle together for warmth. There is so much to see in this 360° landscape!

Antarctica is an immersive exhibition about the heart of the continent exclusively accessible to scientists. Superb films are projected onto big screens, including a final 360° projection, while infographics about the lives of animals help you discover the fascinating world of land and marine biodiversity in the South Pole.

Luc Jacquet, the Oscar-winning director of March of the Penguins, presents two contrasting worlds in this exhibition: a desert of inhospitable ice where few animal species live, some birds and marine mammals, and an underwater realm bursting with over 9000 species of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and corals. His impressive and often unique images will make you appreciate the beauty and fragility of the Antarctic!

Our tour

During our 1:15  hour tour, we will have the chance to have an expert storyteller to guide us through the (very) old history of dinosaurs! Our little group will follow the guide to have a museum overview and to discover all the unknown stories about the Evolution of Life and Dinosaurs’ exhibitions. Let’s dive together into all the permanent and temporary exhibitions and discover History!