The American Museum of Natural History is home to the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world. What better time to see some of the highlights than National Fossil Day?
Reenacting a hypothetical drama between predator and prey, the American Museum of Natural History's Barosaurus display shows the enormous plant-eating dinosaur rearing up to protect its young against an attacking Allosaurus.
This Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was originally arranged so that the dinosaur stood upright. Museum scientists later determined that it was more accurate to show the Tyrannosaurus rex mounted in a stalking position, with its head low, tail extended, and one foot slightly raised.
At one time, some scientists thought Stegosaurus had a second brain because the one in its head seemed so small. Stegosaurus did, however, manage with one small brain.
The Museum's Apatosaurus, collected in the late 1890s, was the first sauropod dinosaur ever mounted. Museum preparators labored over the specimen for years before it went on view in 1905. It has been a focal point of the collection ever since.
The Museum’s dinosaur mummy is a fossilized imprint of the carcass of a duck-billed dinosaur. One of the most complete pieces of Mesozoic dinosaur remains ever found, this fossil represents one of the greatest discoveries in the history of paleontology.
At 7 feet long, Deinonychus belonged to a group of dinosaurs called maniraptors, or "hand-robbers." Its hands and feet were equipped with sharp claws for catching and grasping prey. The dinosaur's hollow bones and long legs indicate swift and agile movement.
Anatotitan was a duck-billed dinosaur, one of the most widespread dinosaur groups. About 70 million years ago, duck-billed dinosaurs lived in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Their habitats varied from forests in river valleys to swamps in coastal floodplains.
This 65-million-year-old Triceratops has a large frill on the back of its skull, two large horns over its eyes, and a smaller horn on its nose. On the side of the skull on display is a partially healed injury, perhaps caused by a conflict with another Triceratops.
Museum explorers uncovered these Coelophysis specimens in a "death assemblage," in which a group of the same animal is found preserved. It is thought that these sites are the results of flooding, when carcasses were washed into a muddy pond and covered with silt.
Corythosaurus is a member of the group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs, which walked and ran on their two hind legs. The species’ strange skull is capped by a crescent-shaped helmet that contains extended tubes, which formed elaborate nasal passages.
Want to check out even more fossils? Don't miss the trilobites.