The Searle Family Lounge features temporary displays of large collections items you can examine up close (think: dinosaur skull or giant microscope).
Situated in the north balcony overlooking Stanley Field Hall, it’s also one of the Field’s best photo spots—with a flying pterosaur, Máximo the Titanosaur, and Carl Akeley's elephants in-frame. Plus, you can pause on the benches to enjoy an educational video about Field Museum research.
Meet the Quetzalcoatlus
Quetzalcoatlus (ket-zal-co-AHT-lus) is a giant pterosaur from Texas, with wings that stretched 35 feet across. This life-sized model, about as tall as a giraffe, overlooks Stanley Field Hall and offers the perfect selfie-spot.
Quetzalcoatlus is not only the biggest of our three pterosaur species on display, but it also lived the latest in time. These flying reptiles likely coexisted with T. rex at the very end of the Cretaceous, about 67 million years ago. Along with non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs went extinct during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
Coming soon: Scanning Electron Microscope
How to study the tiniest things
Moon dust. Insect antennae. Cells of fossilized plants. Learn how Field Museum scientists use scanning electron microscopes to study the wondrous details of very small things. See and touch a decommissioned scanning electron microscope, and learn how such an instrument works.
October 17, 2025– September 20, 2026
Image slideshow
Tip of a millipede antenna, Anadenobolus arboreus.
Head of a weevil larva, Oxycorynus melanocerus.
Screen reader users can skip the following slideshow buttons by using heading navigation. All slides have been displayed above.
Acknowledgments
This exhibit was created by the Field Museum and by Northwestern University through its National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (Grant # DMR-2308691). Research of the Apollo 17 lunar mission specimens used facilities at Northwestern University supported by the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (Grant # DMR-2308691). The Field Museum is grateful to the Searle Family for their support of the Searle Family Lounge.
