The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, founded in 1858, is a museum on the University of Iowa campus at Iowa City, Iowa. The museum is known for its extensive collection of birds, mammals, and Native American artifacts.[1] Major research collections include the Kallam Collection of prehistoric stone tools, the Talbot and Jones Bird Collections, the Frank Russell Collection of Inuit and Native Arctic artifacts, and a large collection from the Philippines from the 1904 World's Fair.
The museum houses several galleries and exhibits. Iowa Hall leads visitors on a 500-million-year adventure through Iowa's geological, cultural, and ecological history. Mammal Hall exhibits the adaptation and diversity of nearly every mammalian order, from the aardvark to the zebra. The Hageboeck Hall of Birds displays more than 1,000 specimens, including the historic Laysan Island Cyclorama. The Diversity of Life exhibits describe major plant and animal groups and the art of taxidermy. The newest gallery, the Biosphere Discovery Hub, investigates the complex relationships between culture and the environment.
The museum has recently coordinated excavations of at least three Jefferson's ground sloths, Megalonyx jeffersonii, along the West Tarkio Creek near Shenandoah, Iowa.[2] Most recently, a fourth giant sloth of a different species, Paramylodon harlani, has been identified from the excavation site. This is the first confirmed specimen of Paramylodon to be discovered in Iowa.[3]