Museum of Nature & Science

UPDATE

The Museum of Nature and Science's Victory Park location will be named the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, in honor of Ross Perot Sr. and his wife, Margot. The couple's children gave $50 million to the museum on May 31, 2008. Construction on the new facility, which will supplement the existing Fair Park facilities, will start in 2009.

Also Online:
- Perot family gives $50 million to Dallas science museum

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UPDATE

Iconoclastic Los Angeles architect Thom Mayne will design the new Museum of Nature & Science. The Victory Park building will contain the major galleries and space for large traveling exhibitions that can't be accommodated now. There will also be offices, classrooms, a theater and the familiar triumvirate of gift shop, bookstore and cafT. The Science Place and Museum of Natural History buildings in Fair Park will remain open in some capacity. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009, with an opening in 2013.

Also Online:
- Thom Mayne to design Museum of Nature and Science

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Located near the lagoon on the grounds of Fair Park, the world's largest collection of Texas wildlife habitats includes permanent exhibits on Lone Star dinosaurs, bison, birds and more. This research-driven natural history museum displays rare and extinct animals, big-game mounts, fossils, bugs, dioramas and a genuine Texas dinosaur. Additionally, the museum's collection of more than 280,000 specimens features an extensive exhibition of Texas wildlife habitats.

Permanent exhibits include:

- Texas Dinosaurs
"Life and Death in the Big Bend" looks at dinosaurs that once lived in Texas, including Alamosaurus, Torosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex

- Ice Age Dallas
Various fossils and a life-sized robotic Glyptodont, an extinct relative of modern armadillos

- Ocean Dallas
Sea creatures featured include a 32-foot-long reptile and a giant sea turtle

The museum has been around since the 1936 Texas Centennial and in 2006 announced plans to merge with The Science Place into a single institution called the Museum of Nature & Science.