American Museum of Natural History (New York City)

[Mediospirifer]

Last June, my husband and I went to the American Museum of Natural History for a day-trip with our mineral club. That place is huge!

There were a lot of exhibits I would have liked to see, but one day just isn't enough time to see everything--especially when I want to read the tags for everything! As it was, we took an in-depth exploration of two rooms, and my husband took a set of photos of the dinosaur room.

We started with the Meteorite collection. There's a lot there, starting with and gorgeous slice of the Esquel pallasite and the Willamette meteorite in the entrance hall:

That's me standing with Willamette.

On our way to the Meteorites collection, we passed by this case of trilobites and paused for a picture:

The Meteorites collection was relatively dimly lit, and it was difficult to get good photos. Here's a couple:

After we left the meteorites (having read everything), we took a lunch break, then went for the fossils. Mr. Spirifer wanted to see the dinosaur collection, while I wanted to see something I haven't seen before: the primitive mammals. So, he took the camera on a good look around the dinosaurs, while I took a quick look around there and went on to the mammals.

Here's some cool bones:

Deinonychus antirrhopus:

Struthiomimus altus:

Deinocheirus mirificus arms:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Some more dinosaur skeletons. I don't have a photo of the label for this one (yes, we took as many label pictures as we did specimens!), so I can't say what it might be.

Struthiomimus altus:

Tyrannosaurus rex:

A set of dinosaur tracks. I think these are casts, but I could be wrong:

Apatosaurus:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a dinosaur I never heard of (one of many!): Plateosaurus trossingensis

A cool plate of Coelophysis bauri:

A very interesting life-pose pairing: Allosaurus fragilis preying on Apatosaurus excelsus:

A couple of skeletons hanging overhead that I don't have the labels for. I think these are a sea turtle and a plesiosaur:

A pair of crocodilians (labeled as "Suchians" without specific info that I have):

Tyrannosaurus rex:

[Mediospirifer]

Another skeleton that I don't have any information on:

Stegosaurus stenops:

Edmontonia rugosidens:

Tenantosaurus tilletti:

I love the translation of the name of this one (two specimens), Anatotitan copei: "Giant Duck"!

Corythosaurus casuarius:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Triceratops:

Styracosaurus albertensis:

Centrosaurus apertus:

And on to the mammals! Some of these skeletons are of extant animals, like this first one, Tamandua tetradactyla:

Lestodon armatus:

Glossotherium robustus:

Two skeletons: Megalonyx wheatleyi (front) and Scelidotherium cuvieri (back):

Another pair, Hapalops ruetimeyeri (front) and Megalocnus rodens (back):

More mammals to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Glyptodonts:

And an unidentified critter that I think is a modern armadillo:

Large animals, with mammalian features accented (look for mounted circles), starting with what I think is a Gomphothere (no label in my photos) next to a horse (Equus):

Gomphothere, Equus, and Toxodon:

More large mammals, including Blastoceros and Smilodon:

Blastoceros:

Smilodon:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Anpther view of Smilodon:

Glossotherium:

Phascolonus:

Edaphosaurus:

Ophiacodon (front) with unidentified skeletons:

Dimetrodon limbatus:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a set of Dicynodonts, with the labels. The skull at the top is Kannemeyeria erithrea, the middle specimen is Lystrosaurus, and the skeleton at bottom is Esoterodon angusticeps:

Lycaenops ornatus (front) and Moschops capensis (back):

Here's a set of color-coded skulls showing the evolution of mammalian features:

Marsupials:

Phascolarctos cinereus (back) and Dendrolagus lumholzi (front) (both extant):

Simosthenurus occidentalis:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Diprotodon australis with Thylacoleo carnifex skull:

Here's a view from the window or the Primitive Mammals room. New York skyline:

Here's a display of several mammals, with the labels:

Monotremes with labels:

One more post for a particular skull!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a Glyptotherium texanum with predation marks. Something took a bite!

And a drawing on the wall of Dimetrodon (I think; it wasn't labeled):

Consider this a teaser; there's a lot more there to see!

If we go back, I'll have to add to this thread.

[isurus90064]

Fantastic report, thank you!! I was hoping someone would post a report on this museum. The one time I visited I forgot to bring a camera.

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks! We enjoyed our visit; I just wish we were closer to it. I want to go back and see some other exhibits!

We did walk through the Hall of Human Origins (on our way to the meteorites), and looked at a few displays, but didn't take any photos. I think they have casts of all of the famous specimens!

It's well worth a visit.

Now I just have to organize my photos from the other museums I've explored....

[isurus90064]

Please do and please post

[Coco]

Ouah ! Great museum ! Thanks for sharing.

Coco

[LordTrilobite]

Fantastic photos!

A pair of crocodilians (labeled as "Suchians" without specific info that I have):

030 Suchians.JPG

I think the skeleton on the right might be Prestosuchus.

Another skeleton that I don't have any information on:

035 Unidentified dinosaur.JPG

This is a subadult Gorgosaurus libratus.

Edited December 12, 2015 by LordTrilobite

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the virtual tour!

Very well done.

Regards,

[ZiggieCie]

EXCELLENT REPORT, Thank you for the tour.

[Auspex]

Terrific report! I appreciate the time you spent to capture, process, and post all these wonderful images!

[Pagurus]

So you think it's worth spending a couple of hours there?

Thanks for the great report and the great photos. I spent a lot of time there as a kid, and used their library later on, but haven't been there in years. It keeps changing for the better. I've gotta go back now! Thanks.

[Scylla]

One of my favorites!

I've posted this pic before

Edited December 12, 2015 by Scylla

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, everyone! I'm happy to share. We had fun!

LordTrilobite, thanks for the IDs. I like knowing what's in the pictures.

Scylla, that's cool! I didn't see those. Something else to look for whenever we get back there...

[jpc]

Yeah, it is a pretty amazing museum with a lot of amazing specimens. I like to brag that many of the fossil mammals and dinosaurs are from Wyoming. No, I had nothing to do with that, but just a geographic brag.

[DE&i]

Elliott and I would have a field day in there for sure. We would like to know :

Quote Elliot : " Is America's Museum as big as NHM in London and do they have as many Fossil's to look at "

[Mediospirifer]

Elliott and I would have a field day in there for sure. We would like to know :

Quote Elliot : " Is America's Museum as big as NHM in London and do they have as many Fossil's to look at "

I can't say about the NHM in London, but AMNH is huge. Check out their list of permanent exhibitions: LINK. There are six fossil halls (plus the Hall of Human Origins), we only saw two.

I'd love to see a thread on the NHM in London!

[jpc]

That's a good question... AMNH or BM... the sizeof the marine reptile wall in London is truly impressive,but I think the total amount of space for fossils in NYC is bigger. They have a lot of dinosaurs for example, and as we know, those darn things take a lot of space. That is my two cents.