The Museo Paleontológico y Arqueológico de Tarija holds one of Bolivia's most significant paleontological collections, focused on the Pleistocene megafauna whose bones have been found in extraordinary abundance in the valley's clay deposits. The collection includes mastodon skulls, giant ground sloth limb bones, and glyptodont shells — the bony armour of an armadillo-like creature the size of a small car.
The archaeological section covers pre-Columbian cultures of the Tarija region, including the Tomata and Churumata peoples who inhabited the valley before the Inca expansion. The display is modest by international museum standards but the specimens are genuine and the story — of a valley that was once inhabited by the world's most spectacular land animals — is remarkable.