So, I have a confession to make. In January of this year, I started working on an in-depth article about the Hall of Human Origins at the National Museum of Natural History. It was going to cover everything: John Gurche’s sculptures, the design and narrative of the gallery, the challenges of opening an exhibition about human evolution on the National Mall, and even the misguided accusations that the hall contains climate change denial. It’s a great story, and I really want to write it up. So I’m giving myself a public ultimatum: it has to be done before the end of the year.
In the meantime, I’d like to share something I whipped up for social media (I’m primarily on BlueSky these days, if anyone’s looking for me). The annotated photos below show the year that each of these fossil mounts at the Field Museum first went on display. A complete list of currently-displayed mounts and their debut years is at the end of the post.
I find this interesting for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s a reminder of the age of many museum exhibits. Multiple generations have come to see these fossils—a few of them predate the current Field Museum building by decades. But these dates are also a succinct recounting of the history of vertebrate paleontology at the Field. The oldest mounts—the mastodon and Irish elk—were leftovers from the Field Columbian Exposition, and presumably were purchased from the Ward’s Natural Science catalog.
After that, a couple of dinosaurs join the fray. These were the result of Elmer Riggs’ first expeditions for the Field Museum. He was hired specifically to collect dinosaurs that could match the displays at AMNH and elsewhere, after all. Riggs’ real interest was in mammals, however, and by the 1910s we see that his department is exclusively mounting North American fossil mammals for display. In 1925, we begin to see the results of the Captain Marshall Field Expeditions (1923–1927) on display, as South American animals like Glyptodon and Aglaocetus join the exhibits.
Around 1948, the University of Chicago’s Museum of Geology closed down, and turned its collections over to the Field Museum. The University of Chicago had a particularly strong collection of Permian animals from Texas and South Africa, and there was an immediate flurry of activity to get those on display at the Field. A few of the University specimens went on exhibit as-is, but many (including Bradysaurus and Aulacephalodon) were disassembled and remounted by Orville Gilpin and others.
After 1960, there was an extremely long period in which no new fossil mounts were added to the exhibits. The fossil halls languished without update until the end of the 20th century, with the opening of Life Over Time. Up until that point, the Field Museum had very few dinosaurs on display, but Life Over Time made dinosaurs its centerpiece. A growing popular interest in dinosaurs during the late 1980s, not to mention a certain 1993 movie, was probably the cause. Since that time, nearly all the new additions to the fossil exhibits have been dinosaurs. And with the exception of Arctodus in 2006, there have been no additions to the ranks of mounted mammal skeletons since the doldrums began in 1960.
That’s it for now, but let’s see about that Human Origins article before the end of the year!
| Name (Common Name) | Type | Year Installed (Updated) |
| Megaloceros giganteus (Irish elk) | Mounted skeleton | 1895 |
| Mammut americanum (mastodon) | Mounted skeleton | 1895 |
| Triceratops horridus (ceratopsian) | Skull | 1905 |
| Apatosaurus sp. (sauropod) | Mounted skeleton | 1907 (1957, 1994) |
| Oxydactylus longipes (camel) | Mounted skeleton | 1916 |
| Dinictis felina (nimravid) | Mounted skeleton | 1916 |
| Smilodon fatalis (saber-toothed cat) | Mounted skeleton | 1917 (1935, 1941)* |
| Ursus speleaus (cave bear) | Mounted skeleton | 1917 |
| Megacerops sp. (brontothere) | Mounted skeleton | 1920 |
| Mammuthus columbi (Columbian mammoth) | Mounted skeleton | 1923 |
| Aglaocetus moreni (baleen whale) | Skull | 1925 |
| Glyptodon clavipes (glyptodont) | Mounted skeleton | 1926 |
| Pronothrotherium typicum (ground sloth) | Mounted skeleton | 1931 |
| Mesohippus bairdi (horse) | Mounted skeleton | 1931 |
| Megatherium americanum (ground sloth) | Mounted skeleton | 1935 (1994) |
| Paramylodon harlani (ground sloth) | Mounted skeleton | 1935 (1941) |
| Barylambda faberi (pantodont) | Mounted skeleton | 1936 |
| Moropus cooki (chalicothere) | Mounted skeleton | 1938 |
| Equus simplicidens (horse) | Mounted skeleton | 1938 |
| Bison antiquus (bison) | Mounted skeleton | 1940 |
| Castoroides ohioensis (beaver) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1940 |
| Andalgalornis ferox (terror bird) | Mounted skeleton | 1940 |
| Menoceras arikarense (rhino) | Bone bed | 1941 |
| Teleoceras major (rhino) | Mounted skeleton | 1942 |
| Pliohippus sp. (horse) | Mounted skeleton | 1944 |
| Homalodotherium cunninghami (notoungulate) | Mounted skeleton | 1948 |
| Captorhinus aguti (early reptile) | Mounted skeleton | 1948 |
| Diasparactus zenos (amphibian) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Cacops aspidephorus (amphibian) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Seymouria sanjuanensis (amphibian) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Acheloma cumminsi (amphibian) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Eryops megacephalus (amphibian) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Labidosaurus hamatus (early reptile) | Mounted skeleton | 1949 |
| Bradysaurus baini (pareiasaur) | Mounted skeleton | 1950 |
| Sphenacodon ferox (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1950 |
| Ophiacodon mirus (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1951 |
| Dimetrodon grandis (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1951 |
| Varanops brevirostris (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1952 |
| Aulacephalodon peavoti (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1952 |
| Edaphosaurus pogonias (early synapsid) | Mounted skeleton | 1953 |
| Protoceratops andrewsi (ceratopsian) | Mounted skeleton | 1954 |
| Daspletosaurus torosus (tyrannosaur) | Mounted skeleton | 1958 (1994) |
| Lambeosaurus lambei (hadrosaur) | In situ skeleton | 1958 |
| Dunkleosteus terrelli (placoderm) | Skull (cast) | 1958 |
| Eohippus sp. (horse) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1960 |
| Brachiosaurus altithorax (sauropod) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1993 (2001) |
| Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis (early dinosaur) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1994 |
| Pteranodon sp. (pterosaur) x3 | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1994 |
| Triceratops horridus (ceratopsian) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 1994 |
| Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus (hadrosaur) | Mounted skeleton | 1994 (2006) |
| Tyrannosaurus rex (SUE) | Mounted skeleton | 2000 (2018) |
| Deinonychus antirrhopus (dromaeosaur) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2006 |
| Buitreraptor gonzalezorum (dromaeosaur) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2006 |
| Stegosaurus stenops (stegosaur) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2006 |
| Maiasaura peeblesorum juvenile (hadrosaur) | Mounted skeleton | 2006 |
| Rapetosaurus krausei juvenile (titanosaur) | Mounted skeleton | 2006 |
| Notharctus tenebrosus (primate) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2006 |
| Arctodus simus (short-faced bear) | Mounted skeleton | 2006 |
| Asilosaurus kongwe (dinosaur relative) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2013 |
| Patagotitan mayorum (Máximo) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2018 |
| Parringtonia gracilis (crocodile relative) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2019 |
| Spinosaurus aegyptiacus (Sobek) | Mounted skeleton (cast) | 2023 |
EXTINCT MONSTERS 