Refurbished Life Science Museum Is a Walk on the Wild Side

Visitors enter a damp, dimly lit room filled with stuffed birds, a mountain lion, a fox. Looming ominously above a glass case, which holds a preserved eagle and hawk, an allosaurus rears its skeletal head as if to watch its prey as they enter.

Such is the sight at the newly refurbished Life Science Museum at Pierce College. The museum, which reopened last month, was established in the early 1960s by former professor Richard “Doc” Tuller to give students and community members a firsthand look at wildlife and dinosaur fossils.

The pride of the vast collection of fossils, bones, stuffed animals and seashells is the black replica of the carnivorous allosaurus, donated to the college by a former student in 1966.

“This guy [the allosaurus] was the largest creature of his time,” said biology professor Ted Kinchloe, who estimates that the dinosaur lived more than 150 million years ago.

The allosaurus skeleton was fitted with a new head this summer after its original cranium was damaged in the Northridge earthquake. The new head, made possible through a donation from the campus’ Associated Students Organization, gave back to the animal its menacing grin.

“I don’t know that I would want to be strolling in a Jurassic [river] wash playing a flute within earshot of this guy,” Kinchloe joked, referring to the 28-foot-long juvenile dinosaur.

It was an infestation of insects on the exhibits in 1994 and 1995 that forced the museum to close last year. Patches of fur and feathers fell from the specimens as the insects ate their skin.

Undaunted, associate biology professor Pat Farris collected several animals indigenous to California and did most of the taxidermy. Many of the animals were donated by law enforcement officials who had confiscated them from poachers.

The museum is open to students and the community from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in Room 1711 of the Life Science Building.

Reservations are necessary only for large groups and can be made by calling (818) 710-4289.