Exhibits

Everything there is to explore at the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo

California Dinosaur Garden 

Located in a 4,160 square foot exterior courtyard, this experience is built around an existing dawn redwood tree, a living fossil dating from the dinosaur age. It includes prehistoric plants within a garden setting, hands-on interpretive exhibits, a fossil dig, and eight life-sized dinosaur sculptures (including a climbable one!). This permanent exhibition teaches children about paleontology, the concepts of evolution and extinction, and the importance of biodiversity. Utilizing creative, sensory-rich exhibit techniques, California Dinosaur Garden tells stories that help children experience the diversity of prehistoric life that existed.  Visitors to it can learn that plants and animals evolved over time, and that some went extinct.  They also have an opportunity to learn that scientists use fossil and geologic evidence to inform our scientific understanding.  

Outside in the Zoo

Within a netted aviary, animals roam freely and safely with visitors in a beautiful, natural, and whimsical setting.  Featured exhibits include the Tree House, Meerkat Desert, Raccoon Creek, Cichlid Lake, Rabbit Meadow, Tortoise Savannah, and Wildlife Circle (where visitors can meet animals and talk with Zookeepers). Children can marvel at flamingos, macaws, ducks, and many unique birds. Adventures await as children can climb in a net above the zoo and explore an underwater tunnel and many nooks. 

Join us for daily flamingo feedings in Wildlife Circle at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

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Indoor science exhibits

We invite children to playfully explore natural phenomena like gravity, inertia, force, motion, balance, energy, states of matter, electricity, and magnetism.  Kids can play with simple machines, make a time-lapsed movie, cooperate with other kids to move balls through a giant ball machine, or make a ball machine of their own.  They can also explore objects in the Museum’s extensive natural history collection, and there is a special place just for babies.

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Photos by Artem Nazarov.

Get a Closer Look at our Exhibits