Abu Dhabi to open Natural History Museum in 2025
Officials in Abu Dhabi have confirmed that the Natural History Museum will open in the capital of the UAE. The museum, currently under construction, is due to be completed at the end of 2025 and is located in the emirate’s Saadiyat Cultural District.
The new museum, which will reportedly be the largest of its kind in the region and will take visitors on a 13.8 billion-year journey with thought-provoking perspective into a sustainable future for planet Earth.
A highlight of the new museum’s collection will be Stan, a mostly complete 39-foot-long (11.7 metres) Tyrannosaurus rex, which is one of the best preserved and most studied fossils of this iconic predator from the Late Cretaceous Period.
In addition to Stan, there will be an extraordinary Murchison Meteorite specimen, which crash-landed in Australia more than 40 years ago and has since revealed to scientists new information about the early solar system. Containing a huge range of organic stardust compounds as well as pre-solar grains which formed over seven billion years ago, the meteorite provides insight into the building blocks of life.
In addition to global natural history, the museum will for the first time showcase the history of life on Earth through an Arabian lens, where local natural assets of fauna, flora and the geological history of the region will be on display.
Within the museum, a scientific research facility will undertake studies in areas including zoology, palaeontology, marine biology, molecular research (aDNA and proteomics), and earth sciences.
In addition to the gallery display areas, the museum will include temporary exhibition spaces for special events and theatre facilities.
