Maybe one of our favorite museums in Rio! The building itself was an old palace for Dom Pedro and…read morelooks like it used to be a beauty in its heydays. Now it looks a little neglected but since the university has picked up the museum and invested some money in it, the content inside is quite an impressive collection. It starts with a dinosaur and meteor display on the first floor, with a couple stuffed and preserved animals for touching. The second floor opens with a huge skeleton of a ground sloth, native to Brazil. They have ancient dinosaurs skeletons with a live artist painting Jurassic dinosaur scenes. There's several types of real stuffed birds; harpy eagle, penguin, Jacu, toucan, etc.
There is an impressive Egyptian mummy collection along with decorated sarcophaguses. They're kept under ambient conditions (temperature and humidity regulated) so it's difficult to get a good picture but you can clearly see how well preserved even the cotton clothes that wraps the body. They also have the Chilean Atacama mummies too!
An indigenous section shows the traditional ceremonies and headdresses. Another shows Candomblé symbols and yet another has Inuit carvings. There's so much to look at!
The building itself has a beautiful courtyard and elaborate ceilings. At only R$6 entrance fee, it's well worth it's price.
