Exploring the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s rare dinosaur fossil archives

Exploring the Smithsonian Natural History Museum's rare dinosaur fossil archives

Deep in the bowels of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, you’ll find something hardly anyone knows about or gets to see in person: A hidden vault that tells the story of life on earth from hundreds of millions of years ago.

The “fossil vault” at the Natural History Museum is a series of endless corridors and shelving, stacked floor to ceiling, in a wing of the building that only authorized personnel have regular access to. Every drawer you open contains a hidden cache of dino remains — each bone rarer than the last.

The fossil archive has one of the — if not the — preeminent collections in the entire world, and in today’s episode of “Matt About Town,” WTOP’s Matt Kaufax got an exclusive chance to tag along with the museum’s “Curator of Dinosauria,” paleontologist Matt Carrano.

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Matt Kaufax

If there's an off-the-beaten-path type of attraction, person, or phenomenon in the DC area that you think more people should know about, Matt is your guy. As the features reporter for WTOP, he's always on the hunt for stories that provide a unique local flavor—a slice of life if you will.

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