National Museum of Natural History

Some of the museums on the National Mall are gigantic! I went to the National Museum of Natural History and learned about a lot of things.

First, we visited the Hall of Human Origins. I learned about early homids (that means early ancestors of human beings who lived thousands to millions of years ago).

Homo heidelbergensis lived about 300,000 to 600,00 years ago

Paranthropus boisei lived about 1.2 to 2.3 million years ago. Can you tell what kind of vegetable he's pulling out of the ground? It looks like a beet to me.

Next, we visited Ocean Hall. Have you ever been to the ocean? Oceans are much, much bigger than the Great Lakes, and also much, much saltier.

Giant squid

Phoenix the Right Whale, based on a real whale that lives in North Atlantic Ocean

Coral reef

For the final stop in Ocean Hall, I visited the fossil collection.

We're inside the jaw of Carcharadon megalodon, a giant great white shark

Did you know that Michigan used to be covered by an ancient ocean?

This sign says that the display case has a sample of Prismatophyllum - a type of coral - from Michigan.

My hand is pointing to the Prismatophyllum

Do you know of any other fossilized corals found in Michigan? Here's a picture of one. Isn't it beautiful?

Michigan's state stone, the Petoskey stone. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Speaking of beautiful rocks, I made one last stop inside of the National Museum of Natural History...the Hope Diamond.

The National Museum of Natural History had many more exhibits, but I wasn't able to visit all of them. If you come to Washington, DC for a visit, make sure you plan for a lot of time at this museum!