The museums listed here feature some of the fossils described in this book.
UNITED STATES
The following are the top-10 natural history museums in the United States.
◉ AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (NEW YORK, NEW YORK)
Widely considered to be the world’s greatest natural history museum, the American Museum of Natural History was founded in 1869 and has been the pioneer in paleontological research in the United States since 1895. It has four giant floors of exhibits, millions of specimens, and thousands of fossils that are not on display—including those in the Frick Wing, whose seven floors store fossil mammals that are available for study by researchers. The fourth floor of the museum has housed legendary fossils for more than a century. Renovated in 1996, the galleries are arranged so visitors can follow the branching family tree of life from fossil fish through amphibians, reptiles, and some of the world’s best dinosaurs, to primitive and advanced mammals. The first floor features the state-of-the-art Hall of Human Origins, and a huge skeleton of Barosaurus rearing up on its hind legs greets visitors in the second-floor Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda.
◉ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION (WASHINGTON, D.C.)
Opened in 1910 as a separate museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Natural History is the most visited natural history museum in the world. The Mammal Hall (with skeletons of most of the famous mammals of the Cenozoic) and the National Fossil Hall (closed for renovation until 2019, with American dinosaurs exhibited in a special show) display some of the best and most important specimens. In addition, the museum has excellent exhibits of invertebrates, including a large collection of Burgess Shale fauna.
◉ FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (CHICAGO, ILLINOIS)
The first thing to greet visitors to the Field Museum of Natural History, in the Stanley Field Hall, is the famous Tyrannosaurus rex named “Sue.” The museum’s large modern halls feature many kinds of dinosaurs, spectacular fossil mammals, and the famous paintings of pioneering paleoartist Charles R. Knight. In the Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet, journey through the 4 billion years of life on Earth, including the evolution of humans, and watch museum staff work on fossils in the Fossil Prep Lab. On the ground floor is a century-old exhibit of taxidermied animals, showing many creatures that are not displayed anywhere else in the world.
◉ CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA)
The scientists and collectors at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the nation’s oldest natural history museums, were active in the Rocky Mountain region beginning in the 1890s, so the museum is home to fossils from the beds of what is now Dinosaur National Monument (replicas of the Carnegie’s skeleton of Diplodocus are in many other museums), from Agate Bone Bed in Nebraska, from the Ice Age caves nearby, and from many other legendary sites (including the type Tyrannosaurus rex specimen). The museum also has an excellent exhibit of Paleozoic invertebrate life of the Appalachian region.
◉ DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE (DENVER, COLORADO)
The spectacular fossils of the Rocky Mountains housed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science are arranged as a trip through time called Prehistoric Journey. As visitors walk through time, they see a three-dimensional diorama of the life in each period, the specimens on which the reconstructions are based, and exhibits showing the localities today, and they learn how paleontologists reconstruct the ancient past and watch scientists as they prepare fossils. The gallery features spectacular sauropods and the most complete stegosaur ever found (showing how its plates and tail spikes were actually arranged). The Cenozoic stretch of the journey has an amazing display of fossils from the Green River Shale, which dates to the Eocene, plus mammals from the Big Badlands, the local Ice Age deposits, and many other places in the Great Plains and Rockies.
◉ NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA)
Recently renovated, the Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County features three specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex of different ages, Triceratops, Mamenchisaurus, Carnotaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, and a pregnant plesiosaur. The theme of the hall is dinosaur biology, and how paleontologists know about the lives of dinosaurs. The Rotunda features a battling Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. The Age of Mammals gallery features many spectacular fossils on two different levels, with skeletons of marine mammals hanging from the ceiling.
◉ YALE PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY (NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT)
One of the first museums to display dinosaurs, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History was built on the enormous collections begun in the early 1870s by pioneering paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh and by generations of Yale paleontologists who followed. The original “Brontosaurus” is here, along with the Deinonychus that inspired the Velociraptor in Jurassic Park, the most complete Archelon sea turtle, the first Stegosaurus and Triceratops ever found, and many other classic dinosaur, bird, and mammal fossils.
◉ MUSEUM OF THE ROCKIES, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY (BOZEMAN, MONTANA)
The relatively new Museum of the Rockies was built from the ground up by paleontologist Jack Horner, and its Siebel Dinosaur Complex features many of his discoveries, including dinosaurs eggs, nests, and babies, as well as many specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops from the nearby Hell Creek Formation.
◉ ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF DREXEL UNIVERSITY (PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA)
Home of the first dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils collected by America’s first vertebrate paleontologist, Joseph Leidy, in the 1840s and 1850s, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University features the first dinosaur to be identified in North America (Hadrosaurus from New Jersey), plus hundreds of other specimens, including a replica of Giganotosaurus, the giant theropod from Argentina.
◉ WYOMING DINOSAUR CENTER (THERMOPOLIS, WYOMING)
A relative newcomer to the scene in an out-of-the-way place, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center has 28 mounted dinosaur skeletons on display, including a 32-meter (106-foot)
Supersaurus,
Stegosaurus,
Triceratops, and
Velociraptor; fish from the Devonian; and the latest specimen of
Archaeopteryx to be discovered and described. The museum maintains its own excavation site nearby.
The following are other important natural history museums in the United States.
◉ MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS)
With collections going back to the 1850s, the Museum of Comparative Zoology features the giant Kronosaurus along one wall, plus fossils of terrestrial animals from the Permian and of mammals from the Cenozoic.
◉ NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SCIENCE (ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO)
The core exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is Timetracks, which takes visitors from the origin of the universe and the beginning of life; through the Triassic “dawn” of the dinosaurs and the dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, the marine reptiles from the Western Interior Seaway of the Cretaceous, and the birds and mammals of the grasslands of the Paleocene; to the Ice Age and the present day. FossilWorks allows visitors to see fossils being prepared for display.
◉ UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM (LINCOLN, NEBRASKA)
Another classic institution, the University of Nebraska State Museum has a few dinosaurs on display, but is one of the best museums in the United States to see Cenozoic mammals—especially horses, rhinos, and camels—and the Elephant Hall features nothing but mounted skeletons of mastodonts and mammoths.
◉ SAM NOBLE OKLAHOMA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA (NORMAN, OKLAHOMA)
The Hall of Ancient Life at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History features Apatosaurus battling the predator Saurophaganax, plus Tenontosaurus protecting her young from Deinonychus, the full skeleton and massive skull of Pentaceratops, many Permian vertebrates (Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus, Cotylorhynchus, and other archaic amphibians, reptiles, and synapsids) from the red beds of Oklahoma, and spectacular Ice Age mammals. The gallery also has an exhibition on the fauna of the Burgess Shale, and the Paleozoic Gallery showcases dioramas of marine life that look eerily real.
◉ MUSEUM OF GEOLOGY, SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY (RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA)
Recently relocated to a new building, the Museum of Geology exhibits fossils of dinosaurs from the Black Hills during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, marine reptiles from the Western Interior Seaway (elasmosaurs, mosasaurs) of the Cretaceous, and mammals from the Big Badlands during the Eocene and Oligocene.
◉ FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA (GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA)
Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land, an exhibition gallery at the Florida Museum of Natural History, covers the past 65 million years of Earth history using Florida as the backdrop. It features different size jaws and teeth of Carcharocles megalodon and spectacular mounts of the Cenozoic mammals of Florida.
CANADA
◉ ROYAL TYRRELL MUSEUM (DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA)
The spectacular Royal Tyrrell Museum, built in the heart of the dinosaur-rich Cretaceous badlands of Alberta, features a huge number of Cretaceous dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops; many duck-billed dinosaurs; and ankylosaurs, among others. This museum was the first, in the late 1980s, to arrange its galleries as a “trip through time,” so visitors can see spectacular displays of prehistoric life from many periods, all in a linear sequence from oldest to youngest. One gallery is devoted entirely to the fauna of the Burgess Shale.
◉ CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE (OTTAWA, ONTARIO)
The Canadian Museum of Nature was the first museum to house the many spectacular dinosaurs from the Cretaceous badlands of Alberta; 30 are on exhibit in the Fossil Gallery, which covers the rise and extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of the mammals. The hall features many predators, including Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex; different ceratopsians, including Triceratops, Monoclonius, and Styracosaurus; as well as duck-bills, ankylosaurs, and dromaeosaurs. In addition, the gallery showcases marine reptiles (Archelon, mosasaurs) from the Western Interior Seaway of the Cretaceous, mammals from the Eocene and Oligocene of Canada, and an exhibition on the evolution of whales (Pakicetus, Ambulocetus, and Basilosaurus).
EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA
◉ NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (LONDON, ENGLAND)
One of the oldest natural history museums in the world, and home to Richard Owen, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Charles Darwin in the mid-nineteenth century, the cathedral-like Natural History Museum houses most of the specimens of marine reptiles discovered by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, exhibits fossils of dinosaurs from all over the world, and features a spectacular gallery of living and fossil mammals. In the gallery Our Place in Evolution, visitors follow the story of the evolution of humans.
◉ BEIJING MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (BEIJING, CHINA)
Home to some of the most important and impressive fossils in the world, the Beijing Museum of Natural History has 11 galleries full of Chinese dinosaurs and fossil mammals as well as displays of the extraordinarily preserved feathered dinosaur and bird fossils from Liaoning and elsewhere.
◉ MUSEUM FÜR NATURKUNDE (BERLIN, GERMANY)
The treasures of German paleontology from the past 200 years are on display at the Museum für Naturkunde, including the largest dinosaur skeleton ever mounted (Giraffatitan, formerly Brachiosaurus) and other fossils from the Tendaguru beds in Africa, the best specimen of Archaeopteryx, and many fossils of marine reptiles (especially ichthyosaurs with body outlines) from Holzmaden.
◉ MUSÉUM DES SCIENCES NATURELLES DE BELGIQUE/KONINKLIJK BELGISCH INSTITUUT VOOR NATUURWETENSCHAPPEN (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM)
The Dinosaur Gallery in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is the largest hall in the world devoted to dinosaurs, featuring fossils from many parts of the planet, but it is most famous for the amazing collection of 30 complete Iguanodon skeletons that were found in the 1870s in the Bernissart coal mines and described by Louis Dollo.
◉ MUSÉUM NATIONAL D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE (PARIS, FRANCE)
The Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, whose origin dates to the days before the French Revolution and consists of 14 sites throughout France, was built by the founder of vertebrate paleontology and comparative anatomy: Baron Georges Cuvier. The Gallery of Paleontology features some of the first extinct animals described by Cuvier (the first mosasaur, the Eocene mammal Palaeotherium, the first mastodont found, as well as Megatherium from South America). The main hall of the museum is still a classic “collector’s cabinet” exhibit of comparative anatomy, with hundreds of skeletons of both extinct and living creatures spanning the length of the building.
◉ SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM (CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA)
The world’s best collection of Permian reptiles and synapsids are on display at the South African Museum, along with Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous dinosaurs from Africa—from the primitive Euparkeria to the huge predator Carcharodontosaurus and the sauropod Jobaria.