Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

This collection contains more than 7,000 specimens representing all of the major vertebrate groups. The collection emphasizes the Paleozoic, particularly the Devonian fishes. Many are from 360 million-year-old Cleveland Shale deposits.

Of special interest is the Dunkleosteus terrelli, a 16-foot-long armored fish whose monstrous jaws acted as self-sharpening meat cleavers. Museums around the world display casts made from this specimen.

Skull of a Late Cretaceous Nanotyrannus lancensis

Four major specimens in the dinosaur collection are on display in The Kirtland Hall of Prehistoric Life. They are: the holotype skeleton of a 72-foot-long, 14 1/2 foot-tall Late Jurassic Haplocanthosaurus delfsi, one of the most complete mounted sauropods on exhibit anywhere in the world; an Allosaurus measuring 40 feet long and 15 feet high that lived in the Late Jurassic (160 million years ago); the skull of a Late Cretaceous Nanotyrannus lancensis, the holotype and only specimen of a small cousin to the T. rex known to science; and a mounted Late Triassic Coelophysis bauri.