The Alabama Collections Center (located on the second floor) is the home for more than 500,000 items from the former Red Mountain Museum. The center houses precious minerals, fossils, and Native American artifacts, the most noteworthy among them including the world's fourth-largest collection of mosasaurs; the Appalachiosaurus (similar to Tyrannosaurus); and the state fossil of Alabama, the Basilosaurus cetoides (an fossil whale).