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2024-25 Fall/Winter Nature Club

Nature Club takes young explorers (6th-8th grade) into local habitats to learn about the amazing living world around us while making discoveries along the way. Across four excursions, youth will learn more about nature through observation and experience while developing a deeper connection to nature and their fellow club members. Programs are led by Museum staff with kids dropped off at rotating locations, including local parks, open spaces, and of course at the Museum!

Cost: $100 non-members/ $80 members per session (4 programs per session)

*Scholarships are available upon request and funding availability

Registration Deadline: October 1st

Schedule:

Migration Madness & Community Science

Saturday, October 12th, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

Join us in exploring the wonderful wildlife at Neary Lagoon. Participants will learn how to use binoculars and identify birds as we walk a 1-mile loop around the freshwater marsh habitat. We will conduct a bird count to record the species we see and participants will learn about the community science platform eBird.

Ethnobotany & Stewardship

Saturday, November 9th, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

Learn about the common native plants of Santa Cruz and their uses. Together we will explore Pogonip Open Space Preserve and look for native plants using field guides. Then, we will participate in a stewardship project to help these native plants thrive!

Tidepooling & Nature Journaling

Saturday, December 14th, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

Let’s go tidepooling! California King Tides are when the highest and lowest tides hit our shores and make for excellent tidepooling opportunities along the coast. We will explore the intertidal critters & crustaceans and document our observations with nature journaling!

Museum Deep Dive

Saturday, January 18th, 1:30-4:00 p.m.

This is a special opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History! Meet our Collections Manager for a tour of the Museum’s collections, learn about the art of writing exhibit labels, and explore the hands-on activities in the Museum. You don’t want to miss this!

Register Now!

Registration & cancellation policies

Cotoni-Coast Dairies

For decades, local groups have fought to conserve the special cultural and natural resources on what is today the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property. Through maps, community voices and breathtaking landscapes, this exhibit explores this unique open space that is now part of the National Monument system.

A Terraced Landscape
The dynamic landscape of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property is dominated by three cascading marine terraces. This unique topography supports a wide array of habitat types across six watersheds.

Supporting Indigenous Connections
For thousands of years, this land was inhabited by the Cotoni (Cho-toe-knee) people. Today, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is helping to restore Indigenous connections to the land by preserving sacred sites and protecting culturally significant plants on the property. The property’s name name honors the Cotoni people who first stewarded the land.

Preserving the Past
The rich history of this land is preserved in archeological sites throughout the property. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the land was shaped by the expansion of Euro-American industries and technologies, including farming, cattle grazing, dairying, logging, and mining. These cultural resources help us understand the past, and can help shape the future.

Looking Ahead
In the late 1900s and early 2000s, diverse community groups and government agencies fought to protect the land from threats of development, ultimately securing public ownership of the property through a national monument designation. As the property is made more accessible to the public, what do you most want to know about it? What hopes and dreams do you have for the property’s future?

Photos courtesy BLM and Santa Cruz Mountains Trails Stewardship

This Exhibit Made Possible With Support From

Thank you to our Media Partner

FOSSIL SLOTH BONE FOUND IN THE SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND REPORTED IN THIS REGION

March 20, 2024

Local students from Tara Redwood School playing in a Santa Cruz Mountains creek last spring found a strange object that they suspected was a bone from a large animal. This bone was brought to the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History where their Paleontology Collections Advisor, Wayne Thompson, recognized it as a fossil arm bone (left radius), likely belonging to an ancient sloth. Thompson called in fossil sloth experts who confirmed that this bone came from a Jefferson’s ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), making this specimen the first reported fossil evidence for this species in Santa Cruz County.

“Megalonyx jeffersonii is one of the very first fossils documented in North America – it’s just one of those iconic animals that more people should know about,” states ground sloth expert Melissa Macias on the importance of this discovery.

The Museum of Natural History is currently working with local scientists to determine whether it is possible to come up with a precise age for this specimen. In the meantime, they know it was found in an Ice Age river bank deposit, placing it in a ballpark of between 11,500 years and 300,000 years old. This find follows on the heels of the mastodon tooth that was discovered on Rio Del Mar beach in 2023. Both of these fossils are from a similar era and their discoveries increase our understanding of what this region would have looked like in the Pleistocene.

“Fossils are a great way to engage people with the deep past,” said Felicia Van Stolk, the Museum’s Executive Director, “and we’re so excited students made this important discovery that will continue to inspire generations of museum visitors and scientists.”

About Megalonyx jeffersonii

1. What is a sloth ?

Sloths are members of a group of mammals called Xenarthrans. The name Xenarthran comes from ancient Greek words meaning “strange” and “joint”, which refers to the unusual and unique shape of these animals’ vertebral joints. They are closely related to anteaters and armadillos.

2. Comparison with modern sloths

Ground sloths are distant cousins of today’s modern sloths inhabiting central and south America. The two modern groups of tree-dwelling sloths evolved independently from land-dwelling ancestors.

3. What is Jefferson’s ground sloth ?

Jefferson’s ground sloths were large herbivorous mammals with blunt snouts that roamed the earth in the past. Comparable to an ox in size, they could grow up to three meters long and weigh between 2200 and 2425 lbs. They inhabited woodlands and forests near rivers and lakes, using their long, sharp claws to forage for food, such as stripping leaves from branches. They were capable of walking on all fours as well as standing on their hind legs, and used caves for shelter.

4. The origin of its name

The term ‘Megalonyx’ is Greek for ‘great claw’, describing the distinctive claws of sloths in this genus. The species name ‘jeffersonii’ pays homage to Thomas Jefferson who presented a scientific paper on Megalonyx to the American Philosophical Society in 1797, marking the dawn of vertebrate paleontology in North America.

5. When did ground sloths inhabit the Earth?

Megalonyx is part of a family group of sloths that appears to have emerged in South America about 30 million years ago, migrating onto the North American continent as early as 8 million years ago by crossing the Isthmus of Panama Land Bridge. Several species of ground sloths were found across North and South America during the Ice Age, during which time they were sometimes hunted by Indigenous people who shared the landscape with these mega mammals.

Jefferson’s ground sloth remains are commonly found in the western United States, the Great Lakes region, and Florida, but specimens of this species from California are rare. They went extinct around 11,000 years ago and scientists are still investigating the cause of their extinction.

6. What was the Jefferson ground sloth’s habitat?

Jefferson’s ground sloth lived in cool, wet, spruce-dominated forests in riparian settings and gallery forests associated with rivers, much like the American Mastodon, Mammut americanum.

7. Presence of sloths in the SF-Monterey bay areas

The remains of Megalonyx jeffersonii are rarely found in California, with a higher concentration of findings in Shasta County and Los Angeles County. This specimen marks the first confirmed ground sloth discovery in Santa Cruz County and is one of the few confirmed specimens in California.

Today’s rainforest sloths are very different in size and look from the ancient ground sloth.

Artwork by Mason Schratter

Wayne Thompson, Paleontology advisor for the Museum’s collection

3-D image scan of the Jefferson sloth bone at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

3-D image video from Wayne Thompson, Paleontology Advisor for the Museum

The Museum worked with local science illustrator Mason Schratter to bring this species back to life in a gorgeous depiction of Santa Cruz in the Pleistocene. This artwork will be exhibited alongside the fossil in the Museum’s annual exhibit of science illustration, The Art of Nature, open March 23- May 26, 2024. After the exhibit, the fossil will be carefully stored in the Museum’s collection where it will be accessible for research and future publication.

Ethics of Collecting

  • Always know before you go when collecting.
  • Determine whose property you are on and what their rules are for collecting.
  • Generally, collecting fossils is not allowed on most public land. 

Fast Facts

  • The fossil bone is a left radius found in Santa Cruz County
  • The species is Megalonyx jeffersonii, Jefferson’s ground sloth
  • Dates 11,500 – 300,000 years old, from the Pleistocene Epoch
  • On exhibit March 23 – May 26, 2024

For more information, check out our guide to collecting fossils

Support Our Collections – Donate Now!

Unearthing Local Geology

“What on earth,” asks Frank Perry, “could tiny plankton drifting in the sea have in common with arrowheads and spear points made by people who lived here thousands of years ago?”

In his new book, Geology of the Northern Monterey Bay Region, local author Frank Perry delves deeply into the ways that geology consists of surprising connections. Grounding the reader in the stories of the rocks that underlie our lives, he artfully weaves together ancient origins, childhood nostalgia, fun facts, fossil finds, and more. The book goes above and beyond straightforward storytelling, with themed activities and field trips thrown into the mix.

This richly varied and engaging approach is especially important when unearthing the geology of a place like the Monterey Bay area. Complex and largely obscured by thick soils and dense vegetation, “our rocks” as Frank notes “have not given up their secrets easily.” Our area has more than 14 geologic formations, the units that geologists use to study rocks, several of which are famous for their fossils. In the face of this complexity, the book illuminates the history of how we have come to know the world beneath our feet – whether through observing ancient sand ripples, encountering cave creatures, or finding local faults.

Readers of the book will also find their way into the Museum’s collections, photographs of which are featured throughout the book. Similar to many of our more subtle local geologic features, our collections are often out of sight and out of mind for all but our staff. Nonetheless, they are rich in stories that connect people to nature, and Frank finds a place for many of these, including the commonalities between plankton and spear points.

Get the book

Beginning with the quote at the opening of this blog, chapter seventeen of the book is illustrated in part by the following artifacts: a carved diatomite specimen, a chert cobble, and a chert point. The carving is light and airy, and it is difficult to imagine how the artist managed to inscribe an image without crushing the medium to dust. The cobble has a stark heft in comparison, with a hardness that isn’t hard to imagine being useful in the spear point of the same material. Despite these differences, the rock types are cozy bedfellows in certain parts of the Monterey Formation, a local oil-rich sedimentary formation that ranges locally between 12 to 15 million years old.

In addition to their common formation origin, these artifacts have other commonalities: we’ve used each of them in exhibits to tell stories about how people connect to nature. In this case, we have different stories of carved stone, from the First Peoples  to more recent European immigrants. 

But what about the crux of the original question, the connection between plankton and points? For that, you’ll have to grab a copy of Frank’s book from the Museum Store, either online or in person. Better yet, join us for the launch party on March 15, 2024, to see these specimens and others used in the book on display while the author himself treats us to a talk on more of the interesting connections carved out by local geology.

Meet the author on 3/15 at the Book Launch Event at the Museum

Making Mastodons Come to Life

Fossils bring the past to life, but they can’t always take us there. While the smallest sliver of ancient bone can hold the key to scientific mysteries, it can’t always immerse us in the ancient world itself.

Enter the work of the paleoartist, the illustrator who excels at engaging contemporary science to create vivid depictions of forgotten worlds. The museum is delighted to share brand new imagery from one such local artist, Mason Schratter. Mason, a graduate of Cal State University Monterey Bay’s Science Illustration certificate program, spent this fall focused on bringing our Pacific mastodon skull to life.

A long time fan favorite, the mastodon skull has presided over our exhibit halls since it was first wrenched from a local creekbed in 1980. One of the few documented mastodon finds from Santa Cruz County, the skull is also the most complete mastodon fossil found locally. In the illustration below, you can see Mason’s straightforward depiction of the mastodon as a specimen.

Specimen illustrations like this are incredibly useful for exhibiting extinct animals to the general public. They help us envision aspects that are missing, such as the tusks that had to be recreated for the display. It also helps us focus on significant anatomical elements that might be harder to discern for the average viewer, such as a clear visualization of the proper orientation of a mastodon tooth: it is the lumpy parts that peak out of the jaw bone, rather than the longer, more stalk-like roots of the tooth. Detailed specimen depictions can be useful for scientific papers, while stylized illustrations can be useful for posters and merchandise. 


But paleoart is more than just illustrating specimens, it is the art of using science to inform the viewer of prehistoric life – living creatures in their environments. Enter the lush landscape of Mason’s mastodon scene, depicting a juvenile mastodon at play alongside a stream. Dappled sunlight drifts across the soft textures of rich flora and furry fauna, luring the viewer into the hazy ambiance of an ancient forest. The playful pose of the young mastodon is especially enchanting, reminding museum goers that despite the hulking size of our mastodon skull, the animal it came from was not even fully grown.

The immersive aspects of this landscape wouldn’t be worthwhile if not for the science that informs the artistic choices – Mason has adult mastodons browsing for food amongst Douglas firs because pollen records show that Douglas firs were prominent in local forests during the Pleistocene epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago). He chose to include animals such as the Steller’s jay and the Sierran treefrog, known from the fossil record to have existed contemporaneously in comparable habitats, to emphasize that while these mastodons may feel impossibly stuck in the past, they co-existed with animals that are part of our present.

Paleoart can do more than transport us, it can also surprise us, upending misplaced notions of distant eras. Viewers may notice the absence of ice in this vision of the “ice age”, the nickname by which the Pleistocene epoch is more commonly known. Rather than being a single stable cold period, the Pleistocene was characterized by cool periods of advancing glaciers across the globe, with warmer interglacial periods. Despite not being frosted with a constant layer of ice, Pleistocene Santa Cruz would still have been generally cooler than it is today.

We love these depictions of our mastodon, but we’d love help expanding our mental landscape of Pleistocene Santa Cruz. To help us out, make like Mason and the mastodon, and explore illustrating your own ice age creatures! 
Get started by going to the contest page on the museum’s website. Need inspiration? Check out this video by museum educator Hannah Caisse on drawing dinosaurs for a deeper dive into paleoart’s depiction of dinosaurs, or explore these hands on guides and classic examples of paleoart outside of the dino mold.

FULL 2/10 Mushroom Walks with Phil Carpenter (two sessions)

Join Phil Carpenter for a guided exploration of local mushrooms, part of our line-up of Fungus February events. We’ll learn how to identify mushrooms while marveling at their unique qualities. The location for these walks will be within Santa Cruz County and determined based on this season’s mushroom crop! All registrants will be notified once the location is determined.

Saturday, February 10, 2024
$20 Members | $30 General

This program has reached capacity. Email events@santacruzmuseum.org to join the waitlist

Session One | 10 a.m. to noon

This program has reached capacity. Email events@santacruzmuseum.org to join the waitlist

Session Two | 2-4 p.m.

This program has reached capacity. Email events@santacruzmuseum.org to join the waitlist

Registration for Fungus February programs will open on January 17 at 9 a.m. for Museum Members and on January 18 at 9 a.m. for the general public. Presale tickets limited to 2 per member. These programs often fill fast, so we recommend 1) becoming a Member if you aren’t one yet, 2) practicing signing into our website to make sure registering goes smoothly, and 3) setting an alarm clock!

Email events@santacruzmuseum.org with any questions, accommodation requests, or if you have trouble registering.

Accessibility

  • Participants should be prepared to walk up to 2 miles on uneven terrain. More specific location notes to come.
  • Youth under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult. Registration fees apply to all ages.
  • We will provide hand lenses and field guides as resources, but feel free to bring along your favorite mushroom observation tools (we have a number of resources in our online store and Members receive 10% off).
  • Leave your pets at home. Trained service animals are permitted.
  • Follow the latest guidelines for COVID safety at the time of the event.

FULL 2/4 Mushroom Walks with Phil Carpenter (two sessions)

Join Phil Carpenter for a guided exploration of local mushrooms, part of our line-up of Fungus February events. We’ll learn how to identify mushrooms while marveling at their unique qualities. The location for these walks will be within Santa Cruz County and determined based on this season’s mushroom crop! All registrants will be notified once the location is determined.

Sunday, February 4, 2024
$20 Members | $30 General

Session One | 10 a.m. to noon

This program has reached capacity. Email events@santacruzmuseum.org to join the waitlist

Session Two | 2-4 p.m.

This program has reached capacity. Email events@santacruzmuseum.org to join the waitlist

Registration for Fungus February programs will open on January 17 at 9 a.m. for Museum Members and on January 18 at 9 a.m. for the general public. Presale tickets limited to 2 per member. These programs often fill fast, so we recommend 1) becoming a Member if you aren’t one yet, 2) practicing signing into our website to make sure registering goes smoothly, and 3) setting an alarm clock!

Email events@santacruzmuseum.org with any questions, accommodation requests, or if you have trouble registering.

Accessibility

  • Participants should be prepared to walk up to 2 miles on uneven terrain. More specific location notes to come.
  • Youth under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult. Registration fees apply to all ages.
  • We will provide hand lenses and field guides as resources, but feel free to bring along your favorite mushroom observation tools (we have a number of resources in our online store and Members receive 10% off).
  • Leave your pets at home. Trained service animals are permitted.
  • Follow the latest guidelines for COVID safety at the time of the event.

About our Walk Leader

Phil Carpenter has been a mushroom picker (versus “hunter”) all of his life, having started picking midwest morels at a very early age. He has been pursuing mycology for nearly 40 years in California. He has been a member of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz since it was founded, and has been an officer in the club for most of those years.

2/3 Family Fun: Mushroom Crafts

Join educators from the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History for a fun crafting event all about mushrooms! Family Fun programs are great for elementary aged kids and their families, but all ages are welcome.

This program is part of our annual Fungus February series.

Saturday, February 3, 2024
Time: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
Drop-In Program

Free with Admission*

*Free for Members and Youth under 18 | $4 General | $2 Students and Seniors

Accessibility

  • All experience levels are welcome. Materials will be provided.
  • Youth under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Follow the latest guidelines for covid safety.
  • Please leave your pets at home. Trained service animals are permitted.
  • Review more details on our Accessibility page.

1/12-1/14 50th Anniversary Santa Cruz Fungus Fair

The wait is over! After a three-year hiatus, we are thrilled to announce that the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair is returning to London Nelson this January. The Museum is proud to be co-presenting this 50th Anniversary celebration with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz who helped us launch the inaugural event at the Museum in 1974. Together we’re bringing back this unique Santa Cruz institution for what we hope is its best year yet!

Mark your calendars for January 12-14, 2024 and visit ffsc.us for more information.

Thank you to our sponsors Peninsula Open Space Trust and Hilltromper.

About the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair

Come to Santa Cruz and explore the facinating world of Fungi. Learn interesting and fun facts about the hundreds of beautiful and fascinating species of mushrooms found in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Area. Fungi will be beautifully displayed in a re-created woodland habitat. This unique Santa Cruz tradition features three days of fantastic fun, informative speakers and demonstrations, with fungal activities for the whole family.

The Fungus Fair is held each year in January in Santa Cruz at the London Nelson Community Center. This three day event features hundreds of species of local fungi presented in a unique fashion, and draws thousands of visitors each year. The Fair showcases speakers, a special Kids’ Room, and a taxonomy panel for identification of fungi you find. Many books and mushroom-related items are available for sale, as are wild mushroom delicacies.

Did you know that without fungus, we’d have no bread, cheese, beer, or wine? Or that anti-cholesterol medicine was developed from mushrooms? Come to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair to learn all there is to know about the fascinating world of mushrooms.

This unique Santa Cruz tradition features fantastic fungus fun for the whole family. Bring the kids and stroll through a re-created woodland forest displaying hundreds of wild mushrooms; the Fungus Fair also features a special room full of hands-on activities for the kids, including fungus exploration tables, clay mushroom building, face painting, and more!

Fungi Fundamentals: Mushrooms of the Bay Area with Christian Schwarz and POST (watch recording)

The unique ecosystem of the Bay Area’s coastal redwoods provides an ideal setting for mushrooms to flourish. Join us for a cap-tivating online event as we explore and uncover more about the fungal landscape. 🍄

In collaboration with Peninsula Open Space Trust, we invite you to a special online event featuring guest speaker Christian Schwarz, co-author of “Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast.” Whether you’re a fungi first-timer or fanatic, Christian will guide us through the fundamentals of mushroom science and share his insights on these remarkable organisms. This event will be tailored for audiences in high school and beyond.

Join POST, SCMNH, and mushroom scientist Christian Schwarz for an informational tour through the fungal landscape in the Bay Area. This 90-minute webinar will be interactive and provide the audience with many opportunities to spore their curiosity by asking our speaker your fungi-est questions. We can’t wait for you to come along with us on this journey to uncover all the mysteries about mushrooms. Register to receive instructions on how to join us for this fantastic fungal virtual event.

Eager to start learning about mushrooms? Check out POST’s blog about 9 Wild Mushrooms Worth Remembering to get you started – there might be a pop quiz during the event!

Cover photo by Christian Schwarz

About the Speaker

Christian Schwarz studied Ecology and Evolution at UC Santa Cruz, where his interest in the world of fungi became irrevocable – their seemingly endless forms (from the grotesque to the bizarre to the sublime) feed his curiosity. He is co-author of Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, and now spends his time seeking, photographing, collecting, teaching about, and publishing research on the macrofungi of California and Arizona. He is Collections Lead for the California Fungal Diversity Survey, and is a research associate of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. He has also served on the IUCN Red List Working Group for North American Fungi, advocating for habitat conservation focused on fungi. He is passionate about biodiversity in general, and especially in the philosophy and practice of community science (especially through the use of iNaturalist).

Meet the Co-Hosts

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting people with nature and science to inspire stewardship of the natural world. Founded on the collection of naturalist Laura Hecox, it is the oldest public museum in Santa Cruz, founded in 1905. The Museum features hands-on educational exhibits and events indoors, outdoors, and online for people of all ages to discover and learn about the natural history of this region. Learn more about the Museum and plan your visit at santacruzmuseum.org. We invite you to follow the Museum on social media for updates about events and the natural wonders of our region.

Peninsula Open Space Trust protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in the Peninsula and South Bay. Since 1977, POST has protected over 86,000 acres in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties.