An armadillo, a cave bear and a saber-tooth cat can all call the new sciences and mathematics building home in the natural history museum, located on the third floor. The grand opening of the building April 16 offered a sneak peek of the new museum. 
The museum holds numerous fossils that date back to as much as 500 million years, and it will open to the public in the summer.
According to an e-mail from Director of Media Relations Michael Robertson, the museum will contain over 2,000 vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, with an estimated value of $1 million to $1.5 million. Ninety percent of these mammals once roamed the South Carolina Lowcountry.
The museum is the brainchild of curator Mace Brown. Brown has been collecting fossils for 15 years and started talking to the College in 2004 about building a museum.
“It was a long process and we found the opportunity with the new building,” Brown said. “So, we put together a team with top-notch people to design and build it.”
The museum is currently in phase one of a three-phase completion process, Brown said.
“Phase two will be the wall with the history of oceans and sharks,” Brown said.
Several sciences at the College will be able to use and study the museum, Brown said.
“It [the museum] is an overlap of departments; biology and geology are involved,” Brown said. “Biology because all of them [the animals] were alive at one point, and even the computer science department will be using iPhone locators here.”
Brown says he hopes many people, students and the general public alike, will be able to use the museum for a number of purposes.
“I am very happy that everyone sees that this is an advantage,” Brown said. “It is wonderful for the College.”
C of C alumnus Christian Harding works in the sciences and mathematics building and says he is pleased with the look of the new museum.
“This is my first time being up here, other than it being an empty room; I brought up equipment to help put it all together,” Harding said. “I am amazed at the transition. It is a great use of window space. A lot of man hours went into this.”
Senior Julie Jacobs also works in the building, and helped design the museum.
The museum has been six years in the making, and is incomplete as of April as more donations are needed.
“I want to be a museum designer, and we worked on this all last summer,” Jacobs said. “We had a fundraiser last fall and raised a lot of money, but this semester is really when we got to it. We have been working since the building opened November 16.”
The museum will be used for student research and public interest, Jacobs said.
“The museum is multi-faceted,” Jacobs said. “The main [use] is for research and public use. You can study the fossils with the prep room and there will be a fossil preparation class eventually.”
Jacobs’ favorite pieces in the museum are the 500 million-year-old Crinoids, and the “awe factor” is the large Mosasaurus skeleton.
“Think about the fact that they are about 500 million years old or older, and they survived and are preserved here so you can see them and touch them,” Jacobs said. “They are one of America’s finest.”
With the public’s help, more will be coming to the museum, Jacobs said.
“There is tons more to come in. The blank space will be used, and we want the public to come in,” Jacobs said. “We want other schools, and family on the weekend so everyone can come and enjoy it. We need to teach people about this.”
Harding said the museum is an amazing experience that everyone should be able to enjoy.
“It is a showcase,” Harding said. “It is like you are in another world.”
The museum is now an integral part of the College, Harding said. “It will be a part of something bigger than a degree. It is a new piece of the puzzle of C of C.”
The next part of the museum the staff is hoping to complete is the ocean display.
“We need about $300,000 from donors and sponsors,” Jacobs said.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs George Hynd came to the opening, and believes the museum should be well received.
“I think the sustained effort of the faculty and administration, and Mace’s contribution of sharing incredible structures, should be celebrated,” Hynd said.
At night, students will be able to see the lit-up museum from the library, Hynd said.
“I’m excited. It is inspiring to a lot of students, especially in the geology and paleontology department,” Hynd said. “The new archeology program can feed into this as well.”