Located within the Tsimbazaza park complex in southwest Antananarivo, the Museum of Ethnology and Paleontology is a distinct institution from the zoo and botanical garden it shares grounds with. The paleontology section holds subfossil bones and reconstructed skeletons of Madagascar's extinct giants, including giant lemurs, elephant birds (Aepyornis), and the pygmy hippopotamus — all creatures that lived on the island within the last few thousand years and were wiped out after human settlement.
The ethnology section documents the material culture of Madagascar's eighteen ethnic groups through household objects, ceremonial dress, musical instruments, and tools. It is an undervisited museum that rewards careful attention — the juxtaposition of vanished megafauna and surviving human diversity says something profound about the island's particular ecological and social history. Labels are in French and Malagasy; a guide is worth engaging for the paleontology section in particular.