Naturalis: 3 clear reasons to visit this inspirational museum

“They made Trix’s leg with a 3D printer!”

After a pregnant pause, “What’s a 3D printer?”

Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden in the Netherlands opened our eyes to the wonders of prehistoric science and modern technology and the symbiotic relationship between them.

But before we get too specific, let’s look at why you need to visit this museum and what makes it so inspirational.

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1. Naturalis is beautiful

Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, has just reopened after a total rebuild and revamp.

The original museum consisted of a tall but boring Collections Tower. The Tower was retained and the new museum emerged around it. The new building takes inspiration from nature and the collections the museum houses.

The highlight is the central hall where the old building and new building meet. It uses natural stone, concrete, oak, glass and steel which will all age beautifully. Around the hall is a honeycomb of hollow cat’s eyes or leaves that lets the light stream in.

The facade is covered with 264 panels created by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. The panels are made of concrete but looks like they are made of folds of fabric or the ripples waves leave on the shore.

But not just the building is beautiful.

The museum is well thought out, well lit and beautifully staged.

The spaces were designed with the collections in mind. The dinosaur hall was designed with 12 metre-high ceilings, to be tall enough to house a Camarasaurus on its back legs.

And Trix, Naturalis’ prized T-Rex, is showcased in its own area.

Each piece of the exhibit has enough space and is beautifully lit to put the focus on the collections. It is not so full that you don’t know where to look (it’s the opposite of Paris), but does not feel dry or empty.

And the art nouveau Seduction Gallery is just gorgeous. Make sure you check out the beautiful but cheeky wallpaper.

It is difficult to describe, but it reminded me of the Van Gogh Museum, but with animals instead of artwork. I’m not sure if others will have that connection, but it’s fitting both are in the Netherlands.

2. Naturalis is interactive

But not with video games (I’ll get to the one “exception” in a moment).

There are many exhibits visitors are encouraged to touch and hold.

Yes, encouraged.

Signs indicate you can touch some of the exhibits.

Each of the main halls also has a staff member to answer questions and has MORE things in the Curiosity Cabinet to touch. When we were there, the expert for the Dinosaur Hall had shelves with toy dinosaurs to match the dinosaur fossils they had on display, as well as fossilised dinosaur teeth for visitors to touch and work out the differences between carnivores and herbivores.

The Earth Gallery is one of our LDA’s favourite galleries. Visitors are encouraged to climb in camper vans and feel the ground tremble as a volcano erupts or there’s an earthquake, climb into a hot tub to experience thermal energy or tour a mini mine in Brazil with beautiful gemstones.

The Seduction gallery was hands-on, too. Scary thought, I know.

Various games taught the principles of seduction and courtship. Wooden blocks shaped to look like twigs allow visitors to build the best nest.

And the only “video game” we saw. Children sit on a “hopper ball” and jump to help the sperm on a video screen move towards the egg. Our LDA was quick to connect the ball with the sperm but did not understand what the sperm actually was.

3. Naturalis is educational without being boring

Eye-opening perhaps, but far from boring.

The examples are carefully chosen, with enough information, but not enough to have eyes glass over. And there is a possibility to ask questions and have them answered by experts.

The friendly expert for the Ice Age Gallery spent ages playing a game without LDA. She had a shelf full of bones (most of which were collected in the Netherlands) and encouraged our LDA to pick a fossil and then go and observe the skeletons of various Ice Age mammals to work out which one the bone belongs to.

(She also gave us a tip on where we could go fossil hunting for Ice Age fossils in the Netherlands. No dinosaur fossils have been found in the Netherlands as it was a sea at the time. In contrast, the Mosasaurus was found in the Netherlands, but we’ll go into that in another post.)

Some exhibits were a little eye-opening. The Death Gallery talked a lot about “recycling.” I learnt a bit about animal reproduction – and the size of penises – in the Seduction Gallery.

The reparations lab was a little gruesome. Two staff members were preparing birds for the research collection. One was drying feathers with a hairdryer, while the other was separating skin with a scalpel (biology was not my favourite subject at school).

Unsurprisingly, the Paleo Lab was a highlight for our LDA. Researchers had been on digs between 2013 and 2018 in Wyoming and brought back at least 3 Triceratops fossils. They are currently working (slowly) to remove the fossils from the blocks of rock.

Our LDA was transfixed, watching one of the staff members using the drill on a rock while another went live on Instagram. They patiently answered lots of questions from us and other visitors and even allowed our LDA to hold a fossilised shoulder bone. That was all she could talk about later.

Holding the fossil AND the 3D printer.

Trix the T-Rex was remarkably complete – one of the most complete ever discovered and the bones were not deformed. Some of the only bones missing were from the left leg. To recreate it, staff used the bones from the right leg and a very large 3D printer (MUCH larger than this one).

Some other things you should know

• The restaurant is not cheap, but it has lots of healthy (seasonal and local) and vegan options and good coffee (better than the coffee we got at our hotel). They even have a kid’s box for little dinosaur fans.
• The shop has a good range of own products based on museum exhibits and products that can be found elsewhere. We bought a keyring, a Christmas ornament and a notebook (I think).
• Go early, if you can. We were there when it opened and only 4 others were there with us at the start. It warmed up when the school holiday program started and was quite popular in the afternoon.
• I managed to get a park in the museum’s parking lot, which was very convenient. My navigation system didn’t recognise the location though, so make sure you check out a map online when you go to know when to ignore your navigation system. Don’t forget to get a parking ticket from the machine before you leave.

Do you need more reasons to visit Naturalis?

We could easily give you many more reasons to visit, but we’ll stop at three. This is a museum you need to visit if you love dinosaurs. And if an innovative way to showcase natural history and encourage interaction and education makes your roar with delight. And you want to learn a little about merging modern technology (3D printing) with ancient bones.

Do you have a museum that dinosaur fans need to see?

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