[1] The commission undertook an expedition that December to excavate a glyptodon fossil from the banks of the Pedernal River in Canelones Department, the results of which were published in 1838.

[4] In 1840, the poet Francisco Acuña de Figueroa was appointed director and for some years interest in the development of the museum waned, and it was not well regarded.

In 1879 the museum was moved to the west wing of the Solís Theatre, where it remained until the year 2000, having previously been housed at Calle Sarandí 472 from 1867 to 1878.

[2] The 1875 reforms having proven insufficient, in 1888 a new commission led by director Juan Mesa was established to reorganise the museum and its operation.

This separation was made official in 1911 and the current title of the National Museum of Natural History first appears in law in 1913.

The EAC took over the central block of the prison (from which the five wings could be observed) in 2010, before being officially inaugurated in 2018 at the same time as the MNHN exhibition space.

The new MNHN was opened by Minister of Education and Culture María Julia Muñoz in a ceremony to mark the museum's 180th anniversary.

[8] In 2008, a skull held at the museum since the 1980s was designated the holotype of a new species of rodent, named Josephoartigasia monesi in honour of former director of the museum, paleontologist Álvaro Mones, in recognition of his work on prehistoric rodents (the genus Josephoartigasia is named for Uruguayan national hero José Gervasio Artigas).