There's still a lot of life left in these old bones

The lobby of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science is bright with a fresh coat of paint.

Workers bustle around making finishing touches, protective paper lining the floors.

A sign tacked to the doors says the museum isn't extinct, just evolving, while the newly redesigned ticket counter waits to welcome visitors back.

And Bella, the animatronic Bisti Beast, is ready to roar again.

After closing in August 2025 for an extensive renovation project, the NMMNS will reopen its doors to the public on Saturday, April 4, with a celebratory block party and ribbon-cutting.

Executive Director Anthony Fiorillo said he cannot wait for the museum to open back up.

They miss all the noise, he said. “This museum should be pulsing with activity.”

As soon as visitors step into the museum, they will see the immediate effect renovations have had on the lobby space.

Fiorillo said the goal was to streamline the area and combine the admissions desk with the membership counter. There is also a new retail space where visitors can browse an expanded gift shop.

The museum added an entrance to the Verus Research DynaTheater off the lobby and knocked down a wall to make it easier for visitors to access the bathrooms before exploring the museum.

The renovations started in part because “our toilets were talking to us,” Fiorillo said. That led to the discovery that the original sewer line was failing.

The sewer line ran from the loading dock through the lobby to the statues of Spike and Alberta outside the entrance. Along with the plumbing repair, the renovations ranged from big to small, from updated exhibits to newly refinished railings and flooring.

“There's a freshness that people will see and feel, but they won't necessarily notice it right away,” Fiorillo said.

Prior to the renovation, the cost was estimated at $3.67 million, with state funding from the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The overall project ended up costing $3.7 million with four main sections of renovation: modernizing the skylights, replacing the sewer line, lobby renovation and smaller project expenses.

Fiorillo said over the last few months of renovations, there have been no real roadblocks, which was in part thanks to the staff.

“The staff has done an outstanding job of rallying because a closure could be stressful, but people rose to the occasion,” Fiorillo said.

Turtle powered

Included in the renovations are upgrades to the museum’s Naturalist Center, which is home to the NMMNHS’ live animals. The center will have new signage, paint and more.

“It's really exciting,” Amy Pilling, Naturalist Center supervisor and educator, said. “This is a volunteer-run room, so we're working together as a crew to kind of upgrade little things that we can and working on cleaning up exhibits and providing a little bit more information.”

Baroness Snaplet deChomper, a snapping turtle who lives in the Naturalist Center, is benefiting from a new tank. Snaplet, as they fondly refer to her, came to the museum as a young, tiny turtle, but has begun to outgrow her first enclosure.

“We're now getting a tank that is custom-built so we can take care of her over her lifetime in here,” Pilling said, “and she can be safe and healthy, and you can see into the tank better.”

In order to prepare Snaplet for the move, which will be in a location that makes it easier for visitors to find her, the Naturalist Center’s volunteer staff is working on “target training” her.

Half of a pet carrier currently rests on the bottom of her tank, and the staff signals for Snaplet to swim into it during feeding time. When the time comes to move Snaplet to her new home, staff will be able to have her swim into the carrier before the top of her current enclosure is cut away, allowing her to be safely moved.

Snaplet is not the only one getting a new tank; the Naturalist Center has made it a priority to not only update the animal tanks but also to improve visitor education.

The updated tanks will reflect environments in New Mexico, including a spider that has been known to nest under fence posts on ranch lands.

“The public comes in from all over the state, and I want people to come in and see something that they recognize and learn something about that environment,” Pilling said.

Some of the museum’s newer residents are getting housing upgrades too, including an orb weaver spider.

“We're making an exhibit for that that looks like you're looking out of a window,” Pilling said. The design will include a frame, showcasing a web.

She said the Naturalist Center is a hands-on part of the museum with many areas to touch and explore. She wanted to expand on that for the reopening.

“We're trying to plan it even more so that it's comfortable for families if they need to come in and settle somewhere and read for a minute … especially with small children,” Pilling said.

Familiar favorites

Fiorillo said when it comes to permanent exhibit spaces, the museum has refreshed or reimagined about 25% of the square footage while still keeping around the familiar favorites.

“There was a lot of social media noise out there about, 'Oh my God, I hope they don't touch my favorite exhibit,’” Fiorillo said. “So we had to balance what we wanted to do with the familiar favorites.”

“We're here to serve the community, and we're trying to be respectful of those relationships,” Fiorillo said.

The Volcanoes and the Evolator are two exhibits that Fiorillo said the community was concerned about how changes would impact them.

The Volcanoes saw minimal updates, with the plexiglass flooring replaced to provide a clear view of the lava floor.

The Evolator, which takes visitors on a shaky geological tour led by a “1980s” sci-fi guide on screen, saw technological updates.

“The Evolator, as long as we can keep upgrading the mechanics behind this, that will always be there,” Fiorillo said.

He said he has lost track of how many people, as kids came and saw this and they are now bringing their kids or grandkids to the Evolator.

“This is, without a doubt, a vault of family memories,” Fiorillo said.

Another favorite visitor spot, the Cretaceous Hall saw a few updates.

“Kids go nuts here, adults go nuts here, because (the bones are) so big and so spectacular,” Fiorillo said. “So we didn't touch the skeletons. We didn't touch the mural we have.”

What the museum did update in the hall was the signage explaining the history of the dinosaurs exhibited.

He said that as time has gone on, science has discovered more about the dinosaurs on display, and that the exhibit now reflects this process.

“What we're trying to do is build trust with our community with improved science communication, so that when we say something, people will understand why we say what we're saying,” Fiorillo said.

Road warriors

When the museum reopens it will also debut a new traveling exhibit, “Animal Armor: The Evolution of Armor in Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals,” which explores the evolution of animal defensive armor and how humans are inspired by it.

The traveling exhibit, developed by Gaston Design Inc., will be up until early fall.

Rob Gaston said curating it was like building an art collection.

“You see what you like, and it's like, ‘Wow, I really love that,’” Gaston said, “and you hope that other people will too.”

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the Deinosuchus, which is closely related to modern-day alligators and crocodiles.

NMMNHS is also displaying fossils from its own collection for the “Animal Armor” exhibit.

Fiorillo said the museum is working to take more specimens from its storage and bring them into the public eye — attaching them, as relevancy demands, to the traveling pieces coming in. The goal is to give visitors seeing traveling exhibits at the NMMNHS a “unique experience.”

Throughout the renovations, Fiorillo said he has been happy to see the community's feedback, and he believes museums should be the cornerstone of a community's culture.

Fiorillo said NMMSHS is not just a museum for Albuquerque’s history and science. "We are a New Mexico museum,” he said.

Even after the museum reopens, Fiorillo said over the next few years, NMMNHS wants to keep things fresh and exciting for visitors.

“The message is that even though we ribbon cut on the fourth, we're not done,” Fiorillo said. “We have a lot of vision still.”