The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is best known internationally as the home institution of Donald Johanson, who discovered the 3.2-million-year-old hominin skeleton known as Lucy in Ethiopia in 1974. A cast of Lucy is on permanent display in the human origins gallery, along with one of the strongest collections of Homo erectus fossils outside Africa.
The dinosaur hall is the headline gallery for children, with a complete Haplocanthosaurus and the type specimen of Coelophysis. Outside, the museum maintains a small zoo of native Ohio wildlife (bald eagles, owls, river otters) and a working planetarium and observatory. A major renovation completed in the mid-2020s reorganised the visitor route around the human-origins narrative.
Admission charged. Closed Mondays. Combinable with the art museum and botanical garden on a single University Circle day.