Natural History Museum of Maastricht — Attraction in Maastricht

The museum was a little hard to find, the doors are very cool, but not easy to spot. The writing over the door is behind a tree and there is just one little green sign that tells me about the museum being here. The museum costs 9€ and has a coat room in the basement and a room for schools to the right. The first thing you see is the first Mosasaurus skull they found in Sint Pieter and the one the napoleonic troops didn't take to Paris. You don't get told about that, we only knew because we saw the underground site at Sint Pieter the day before. After the illuminated skull, comes the auditorium. The movie is about 7 minutes long and a little dull even if you are as into dinosaurs and Mosasaurus as I am. The next stop was the Mosasaurus experience which was fairly cool. They mounted a fake skeleton of Mosasaurus hoffmanii, with the snout towards you when you enter the room which gives you a sense of scale and dread as you enter. To the left side they display tools that were used to excavate the Mosasaurus (hammer, chisel, paint brush and high vis clothing). To the right there's an animation playing of Mosasaurus swimming in the cretaceous ocean, eating a turtle (more of a Prognathodon thing as far as science knows) and than swallowing the viewer. Next to the door is a autio station of what people (local celebrities? Influences?) have to say about Mosasaurus. This exhibition at least is in Dutch and English. After that, no more English. After the experience we went outside into the glass cube the built for the Prognathodon. There was no English at all. The museum is in an old cloister, so we walked through the garden and looked at different plants. The first part, behind the cube has a lot of flora that reminds you about the cretaceous, which is a nice touch. After that the looked at the restof the exhibit. A lot of small fauna and flora, but no English explanations. Sadly "Carlos", the recent Mosasaurus find, who was wounded by another Mosasaurus in a fight or while mating (paleobiology is unclear) and died of its festering wounds is tucked away in a corner. They have a cool ancient turtle, a Hadrosaurus skeleton and a real Mosasaurus skeleton mounted. They changed the head and jaw mount, so it doesn't look like in the pictures anymore. That position gave the viewer a much better sense of the impressive jaw of this prehistoric reptile. On the upper level are bones of prehistoric mammal (no English), so you can guess which is which. After that comes the taxidermy. I have seen a lot of taxidermy, but rarely this atrocious! The poses are unnatural, stuffing is comming out, faces are pulled or stretched too far and some even have googly eyes! The birds are mostly ok, but most mammals are aweful. The insects are ok, but way too crowded and the lights in that room were switched off. There is an extra room, seemingly simulating an old dining hall with really old, aweful taxidermy, but that's fine since it's probably from the time of the founder of the museum.

All in all an interesting museum, sadly they don't utilize the thing they are famous for more to draw bigger crowds or at least inform their...

A must visit for any paleontology enthusiast. Do watch the short informative presentation (English subtitles available) which are played multiple times an hour, you can also ask for a information brochure (also available in English) at the reception desk. The ground floor displays all the prehistoric fossils and related objects. The first floor has a mix of prehistoric fossils and modern animals mounted in life-like poses. Highly recommend this place for families with kids, it has various interactive tools and displays which I'm sure the kids would love. Do not forget to get yourself an ammonite fossil at the reception desk / souvenir shop for a reasonable price. The place is accessible for people with special needs too. There are lockers in the basement rooms just Infront of the toilets to stow away your belongings which you might not necessarily want to carry around. I short 10/10 would...

Very accessible and succinct little museum.

Its main claim to fame is housing the mosasaurus, and I reckon the places has an unmatched knowledge in that regard. The separate room showcasing the skeleton mock-up, the surrounding video of what it would have been like in its habitat, the personal testimony of some of the affiliated people, and the little segment showcasing excavation tools made it all very cohesive.

The rest of the museum was also very nice I found the interactive globe really fun, and then the adjoined topography display of Zuid Limburg at the time. A robust showcase of wildlife throughout the museum alongside some fossils and even a fair bit of geology included too which is nice.

The movie in the room to the right of entry was also very nice, and tied a lot of the museum's exhibition...