A new University of Iowa exhibit features some of the biggest, hairiest, and scariest giants that ever called Iowa home.

“Iowa’s Ice Age Giants,” a free public exhibit, opens Thursday, April 18, at the Old Capitol Museum’s Pentacrest Gallery for Arts, Humanities and Sciences with a reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The exhibit was developed by the UI Museum of Natural History and the UI Paleontology Repository.

Featured fossils include fierce Ice Age predators such as the saber-toothed cat and giant short-faced bear as well as gentler giants like the woolly mammoth and giant ground sloth. Iowans discovered many of the specimens in their own backyards over the last several decades.

Bones also will be displayed from recent large-scale excavations overseen by UI researchers at the Tarkio Valley Sloth Site in southwest Iowa and at the Mahaska County Mammoth Site.

The opening reception features refreshments and a cash bar. Attendees are encouraged to stay for a special UI Explorers Seminar in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber beginning at 7 p.m. Richard Baker, UI emeritus professor of geoscience, will discuss ice age research at the Snowmastadon Site in Colorado.

More information about the exhibit is available at the Museum of Natural History website or by calling 319-335-0606. More information is also available at the Old Capitol Museum website or by calling 319-335-0548. Both are units of UI Pentacrest Museums.

The Paleontology Repository is part of the UI Department of Geoscience, which is a unit of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Old Capitol Museum in advance at 319-335-0548.