Florida Museum of Natural History

There's a place for the Sea Worlds and Disney Worlds and other attractions located throughout Florida, but if you haven't visited the real jewels of Florida heritage, you haven't seen the whole story. Open year-round and free of charge, the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida, represents much of what's best about the Sunshine State.

The Florida Museum of Natural History serves as the state of Florida's official national history museum and it holds one of the United States' top natural history collections. The museum is part of the University of Florida's cultural experience and is right next door to another fantastic museum, the Harn Museum of Art.

The museum houses four permanent exhibits:

The Hall of Florida Fossils showcases Florida's geologic and environmental changes over the past 65 million years, and the fossils that give insight to the plants and animals that have made their home in Florida.

South Florida People & Environments explains the story of native people in South Florida and the environments that have supported them for thousands of years. You can walk along a boardwalk through a mangrove forest, travel underwater to view larger-than-life marine creatures, visit the house of the Calusa Indian leader and much more.

Northwest Florida Waterways and Wildlife displays a full-sized replica of North Florida limestone cave and showcases the amazing diversity of Florida's panhandle, the most biologically rich region of the state.

The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and the Butterfly Rainforest brings you face-to-face with hundreds of living butterflies. The rainforest is complete with tropical and subtropical plants and trees, waterfalls and a walking trail. You can also view thousands of Lepidoptera species on the enormous "wall of wings" and learn about butterfly and moth biology. Even more amazing is that there is a collection of more than 4 million butterflies and moths, making it the second largest Lepidoptera collection in the world.

You simply cannot go wrong with a visit to the Florida Museum of Natural History!