A basement filled with rare, far-out specimens (San Diego Natural History Museum)

Teeth, Insects, and Preserved Animal Poop, Oh My!

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

It’s called for good reason, “Amazement in the Basement,” a permanent exhibition in the cellar of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park that many visitors have yet to discover.

The museum sunk $5.1 million into the subterranean space, which contains a fossil preparation lab, rare taxidermy, and drawers of plant, animal and insect specimens from a collection of more than 9 million samples.

Up until the recent launch of the exhibit, much of the collection was inaccessible to the public.

Some of the fossils, as well as teeth from sharks and mammoths, date back to more than 3 million years. And yes, there is preserved animal waste and creepy-crawler insects mounted with stainless steel pins, all of which give researchers a deeper understanding of our region’s biodiversity. (Those working scientists, by the way, are usually onsite interacting with inquiring minds from the public.)

The exhibition is included with museum admission. It is open from 10:00a to 5:00p daily, with closing hours extended to around 9:00p during summer.