Morrill Hall is where the University of Nebraska keeps its 14-million-year-old elephants. The museum’s Elephant Hall holds the world’s largest articulated fossil mammoth alongside other Ice Age giants, and the rest of the building is packed with Nebraska paleontology — the kind of deep-time story you can’t get anywhere else, since so much of it was dug up in this state. The Mueller Planetarium runs public shows on weekends, and the Marx Discovery Center gives kids things to touch and build.
It’s also the Lincoln outpost of a statewide museum system that includes Ashfall Fossil Beds near Royal and the Trailside Museum at Fort Robinson — your admission connects you to all of it. The “Sunday with a Scientist” series brings actual UNL researchers out to talk with visitors, which is exactly as fun as it sounds.
Open Tuesday through Saturday 9 to 5, Sunday noon to 5. Note the fine print: on Husker home football Saturdays the museum lot becomes cashiered event parking, so plan around the schedule or park elsewhere and walk. The east-side accessible entrance is on 14th Street.