Explore Ancient Marine Fossils at Mace Brown Museum

Trace the Evolution of Ancient Seas

Step into a chronological journey through time, where the displays begin with a 3.49 billion-year-old microbial mat and lead you toward the more recent prehistoric past. The museum focuses on the paleontology of the South Carolina Lowcountry, housing an extensive collection of over 30,000 vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.

The core of your experience lies in the marine vertebrate fossils from the Oligocene epoch. You can explore a dedicated exhibit on the evolution of cetaceans, which highlights the development of baleen, echolocation, and the transformation of the nose into the blowhole. This section features rare early dolphins and baleen whales, alongside sea cows, sea turtles, fish, sharks, and rays. Within this collection, you can see the holotype specimens of Coronodon, Cotylocara, and Inermorostrum.

Beyond the coastal waters, your exploration continues with:

• A display of Cretaceous mosasaurs from the Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway
• Fossil mammals and turtles from the White River badlands of South Dakota
• An exhibit on prehistoric life including sloths of the southeast, elephants of South Carolina, and various fossil plants.
• Marine environments featuring bottom dwellers mounted as if on the seafloor, with floaters and swimmers positioned above.

Witness Giants and Ancient Tracks

The museum offers several striking large-scale features to ground your understanding of prehistoric scale. You can view the head shield of a giant armored placoderm fish and the complete skeleton of a large teleost bony fish. In the atrium of the Addlestone Library, you will find a mounted cast skeleton of the ancestral whale Dorudon atrox.

Recent additions provide a closer look at iconic prehistoric figures, including casts of a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus—specifically the T. rex known as "Scotty." To round out your exploration of the ancient world, visit the dedicated trackway exhibit to see dinosaur tracks from across the globe, including a Stegosaurus track cast and various ornithopod paths.

Explore at Your Own Pace

Because admission is free, you can spend as much time as you like wandering through the different geological eras. To make the most of your visit, seek out the "touch me" specimens and the detailed labels that describe nearly every exhibit. A highlight not to miss is the evolution of cetaceans gallery, which showcases some of the rarest whale fossils in the world from the Oligocene period.

The museum sits on the campus of The College of Charleston. If you have extra time after exploring the prehistoric past, you can venture nearby to see the Confederate Defenders of Charleston, Eastside, M101 Howitzer, M113, or the William Moultrie Statue.