Natural History Gallery
British Columbia has been shaped by movements of earth, ice and water. This gallery takes visitors on a journey across time and through dramatically changing environments. In one visit you will time-travel from lush tropical forests to ice-bound tundra, emerging in the present where you can hike through rainforest and to a spectacular rocky ocean shore.
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Time for Change
The Earth is restless. Over millions of years, landscapes and climates change, continents move, great bodies of water form and disappear, mountains rise up and wear away. The changing face of the planet creates new environments in which species evolve or go extinct. Follow along this wall and see some key events of the last 80 million years that have shaped the Earth and our province.
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Chilling Out in the Ice AgeMammoths and giant bison fed on grasses and sedges in the open lands. Mastodons favoured pine and spruce woodlands, where they nibbled on the branches. Cold-water snails and clams thrived in the frigid waters near the glaciers' edge. Today, ice-age fossils can be found throughout British Columbia, especially along the coast. Click to hear the 'Sounds of the Ice Age.'
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Climate Rules!
What we eat, how we dress, where we work and play, our forests, rivers, lakes and landscapes are all influenced by climate.
Now the rules are changing in British Columbia and around the world.
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In the coast forest diorama, a Grizzly Bear, the largest land predator in British Columbia, hunts for food in a forest stream.
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Lions of the Sea - The Northern Sea-lion is the largest of the eared seals, a group of seals with visible external ears. Males can grow to four metres long and weigh over 1000 kilograms. |
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The Great Blue Heron is one of the many year-round residents of the Fraser River Delta and British Columbia's coastline. Many other birds overwinter here but migrate elsewhere to breed.
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