Museum Offers Trip to Past in Modern Setting : Culture: Grand opening is held for Orange County natural history gallery, located at a Laguna Niguel shopping center. Ancient shark teeth and writhing snakes are some exhibits.

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  It seems like an incongruous setting for a natural history museum, nestled between a shoe store and an Italian restaurant in the Plaza de la Paz shopping center, but those who attended the grand opening Saturday thought it was a great location.

“It’s very convenient having it here,” Tamar Peleg said as she walked out of the new Orange County Natural History Museum with her two young children.

“Typical Orange County,” joked her husband, David. “Now you can shop and go to the museum at the same time. The kids loved it.”

John Minch, the museum’s chairman, said the location made nature and science “more accessible to the public. It’s a very unique idea.”

Also, he said, the price was right--the rent for the 1,200 square feet of space is free. It was donated by Howard Adler, who owns the shopping center.

Despite the modern-day surroundings, the museum offers a wide range of natural wonders, some dating back 80 million years. A few artifacts, like the tooth from a 10-million-year-old, 60-foot great white shark or the 9-million-year-old whale ear bone, were found on the site of the shopping center.

A 108-by-4-foot mural of the different habitats in the county lines the walls inside the museum. The painting, by Los Angeles artist Rebecca Jo Morales, depicts the plants and species from sea level at Newport’s Back Bay to the 5,687-foot level of the county’s highest elevation at Santiago Peak.

“The purpose of the museum is to educate the people, especially the children, about all the wonders of Orange County,” said Sunny Anderson, president of the private, nonprofit museum. “There are so many interesting things right in this area.”

Everything in the museum can be, or has been, found in the county, she said.

For the admission price of $1 for adults and 50 cents for children, patrons can view six terrariums of rodents, reptiles and amphibians; eight display cases of fossils, shells, birds and butterflies; and an array of insects, pictures and other photographs.

The museum, which took about eight months to set up, is a venture of the Natural History Museum, an organization whose mission is to protect, preserve and display the county’s natural historical resources. Anderson said the museum will offer educational programs for children and provide internships for college students.

On Saturday, parents and children roamed around the exhibits and asked questions about some of the unusual objects.

“A camel?” asked one woman as she peered at a skull fossil of the animal. “I didn’t know they were ever in Orange County.”

For most youngsters, though, the snakes were the most curious attraction.

They sat on the floor holding a California mountain king snake or a boa constrictor. Many smiled, but remained motionless as the reptiles slithered along their arms.

But Douglas Lunn, a happy 5 1/2-year-old, was weary of the snake and cautiously stood behind his father’s leg, content just looking at the creature.

After some coaxing, he petted the snake and said he liked it.

But after about half an hour of looking at various sea shells, stuffed birds and fossils, Douglas finally had his fill of nature.

“Could we go rent a video game?” he said, pulling on his father’s trousers. “Please.”

The museum, at 27281 La Paz Road, Suite G, is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.