The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' paleontology collection includes approximately 56,000 vertebrate, 55,000 invertebrate and 1,000 paleobotanical specimens. The Museum currently is the repository for 34 fossil type specimens (22 invertebrate and 12 vertebrate). Two of the most notable specimens in the Museum's paleontological holdings are skeletons of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis and Thescelosaurus.
The most significant vertebrate collections are those from the North Carolina Triassic beds which include a large number of synapsids and early archosaurs. The North Carolina Triassic is one of the main areas of our vertebrate research. Good collections of North Carolina Cretaceous and Cenozoic material are represented. These collections include a good number of North Carolina Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, a large marine bony fish (Pliocene and Miocene age) fauna from eastern North Carolina and the fossils of several giant ground sloths, Eremotherium eomigrans, from near the North Carolina coast.
The Museum also houses a representative collection of Cenozoic and Triassic invertebrate fossils from North Carolina, along with a significant collection of Ediacaran-age fossils from southcentral North Carolina and a substantial collection of crinoids from Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Staff
Please direct loan or visitation inquiries to Curator of Paleontology Vince Schneider at vince.schneider@naturalsciences.org [2] or 919.707.9939. For information regarding the invertebrate paleontology collection, please contact Trish Weaver at trish.weaver@naturalsciences.org [3] or 919.707.9943.
Staff Web Pages
- Vince Schneider [4], Curator of Paleontology
- Dale Russell [5], Curator Emeritus
- Mary Schweitzer [6], Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
- Patricia G. Weaver [7], Collections Manager of Geology and Paleontology
- Lindsay E. Zanno [8], Director, Paleontology & Geology Research Laboratory
- Paul Brinkman [9], Assistant Director, Paleontology & Geology Research Laboratory
- Daniel Ksepka [10], Research Associate
Links
- National Museum of Natural History Paleobiology Department [11]
- North Carolina Fossil Club [12]
- The Echinoid Directory [13]
- The Paleontology Portal [14]
- University of California Museum of Paleontology [15]