The Origami Holiday Tree

This year’s dazzling 13-foot holiday tree, on the theme New Beginnings, celebrates the spectacular variety of species that evolved after an asteroid impact ended the age of dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

Among the more than 1,000 origami pieces are dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles—pterosaurs that ruled the skies, mosasaurs and plesiosaurs that roamed the seas, as well as Triceratops and T. rex, which walked the Earth during the Cretaceous Period.

The tree also includes an array of mammals and insects that evolved after the asteroid impact.

These new mammals include ancestors of the Museum’s iconic Blue Whale, as well as our primate ancestors. Look for birds, too—dinosaurs living among us today.