Frozen Reign - Indiana State Museum

From the arctic kingdom, the Ice Age returns

Long before humans arrived, glaciers advanced and retreated across the landscape, creating jungle habitat for jaguars and rhinos. When the glaciers returned, mammoths and mastodons thrived in the harsh climate. Here, you’ll explore an ice tunnel, a jaguar’s den and a frozen lake to see all kinds of Ice Age animals that once called Indiana home. Along the way, you’ll discover how glaciers carved the earth, compare your weight to a giant sloth, and find out why mammoth and mastodon teeth are so different. Embark on an odyssey through an ice tunnel time machine and come face to tusk with glacial giants. Discover a landscape in motion inside Frozen Reign.

Things Get Grave

Learn the stories of an unlucky mastodon and dire wolf.

Measure Up to Giants

Compare yourself against Indiana’s ancient beasts.

Call of the Mastodon

Hear what an ancient mastodon might’ve sounded like.

March with Skeletons

Experience a parade of Ice Age giants from Indiana’s past.

A LOOK AT A STATE OF CHANGE

The Ice Age Returns to Indiana!

— View Audio Transcript —

Music and Sound Effects: Epic action-movie music soundtrack with ambient sound effects, including ice cracking, wind howling, water dripping inside an ice cave, and pre-historic animals roaring and stampeding. VO: From the arctic kingdom . . . the ice age returns to the Indiana State Museum inside our new gallery: Frozen Reign. Embark on an odyssey through an ice-tunnel time machine, and come face to tusk with the glacial giants who once called Indiana home. Discover a state of change inside Frozen Reign. Find what’s next, at Indiana Museum dot org.

Our team digs for Ice Age animals in Southern Indiana caves

Digs for prehistoric animals aren’t just happening in the American Great Plains. For decades, our team has been digging for Ice Age skeletons right here in Indiana. In fact, Ice Age paleontology is one of the specialties of the Indiana State Museum, and the museum has more mastodons and mammoths from different locations than any other museum in the Midwest. That’s a good thing, because the more bones we have from a variety of locations and time periods, the better picture we can paint of what life for these animals may have been like, as well as the conditions in Indiana during that time. Look for rare fossils and bones throughout the gallery!

See what's hiding in our behind-the-scenes collection!

Along with more than 500,000 objects, we also collect and preserve stories, information and scientific data that provide perspective on the state’s present and future. Within the collection are six Centers of Excellence. These are distinguished by the extraordinary quality of the objects and the depth of staff expertise.

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