iMuseum Man and NatureNymphenburg
Molassic Park
An expedition into Bavaria's subtropical past 10 million years ago, with four-metre tusked elephants, saber-toothed cats and "Udo," a newly identified upright-walking ape species.
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In 2019 a clay pit in the Allgäu turned up an ape nobody had named before. Udo is 11.6 million years old and shows clear signs of walking upright, and here you can pick up replicas of his bones and turn them over yourself.
The rest of the show rebuilds the Bavaria he lived in, warm enough for cinnamon trees and swamp cypresses. Most fossils are originals from Bavarian sites, and large landscapes by the Spanish palaeoartist Mauricio Antón put four-metre tusked elephants, sabre-toothed cats and flying squirrels the size of a bedside rug back among them. You match a fossil leaf to its species, find pollen under a microscope and touch 11-million-year-old teeth. With Bruno the bear elsewhere in the building, Bavaria clearly names its famous wild animals like uncles at the Stammtisch.
A fossil collector on the Steinkern forum called it uncluttered and "superbly staged". Entry is €7 (€4.50 on Sundays), including the permanent collection, and under-18s go free.
Editor's pick
Bavaria 10 million years ago, when it was subtropical: four-metre tusked elephants, sabre-toothed cats and Udo, a newly identified ape species that walked upright. Hard to picture from a Munich tram stop in winter.
Look for
Udo's bones, in your hands
Look for the replica bones of the 11.6-million-year-old Allgäu ape, which you can pick up and study for the signs that he walked upright.
Mauricio Antón's landscapes
Large-format reconstructions put the show's animals, from tusked elephants to sabre-toothed cats, back into Bavaria's subtropical forest.
The pollen microscope
Identify fossil pollen under a microscope, then try matching a fossil leaf to the species it came from.
The 11-million-year-old teeth
Touch them and learn what a tooth gives away about how its owner lived.
The illustrated base plates
Each object sits on a base plate carrying drawings and studies of it, the detail a visiting collector singled out.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
- Small Kids
Skip if
You only want originals: Udo's own finds are shown as replicas.
With kids
Under-18s get in free. The museum runs one-hour expedition tours of the show for children aged 6 and up, for example on 30 October 2026 at 15:00 from the foyer.
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Image credits
5
- Molassic ParkCourtesy of Museum Man and Nature
- Steina: PlaybackCourtesy of Haus der Kunst
- From Turner to van Gogh: The 19th CenturyJ. M. W. Turner / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Museum Man and NatureMaximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
- Nymphenburg PalaceBurkhard Mücke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0