Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

dinosaurs in their time

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Daniel G. And Carole L. Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs

Plan an expedition to the Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs—Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s core exhibition featuring real dinosaur fossils.

This exhibition is home to dozens of original fossils from throughout the Mesozoic Era displayed in scientifically accurate reconstructions of their ancient habitats.

Are the Dinosaur Fossils on Display Real?

About 75% of the more than 230 objects on display are original fossils from one of the finest paleontological collections in the world, and most of the exhibition’s dinosaur skeletons are real, not replicas. Several of these skeletons—including those of the iconic dinosaurs Apatosaurus louisae, Diplodocus carnegii, and Tyrannosaurus rex—are holotypes, the original specimens upon which their respective species are based.

In the many decades since the discovery of Diplodocus, scientific interpretations of dinosaurs and their lifestyles have changed dramatically. This exhibition uses up-to-date paleontological evidence—much of which has been provided by the museum’s own scientists—to accurately reconstruct the appearance and behavior of these colossal creatures.

For instance, we now know that Apatosaurus and Diplodocus (two famous long-necked dinosaurs) did not spend their lives wallowing in swamps and that predatory dinosaurs such as T. rex walked with their tails held off the ground and their backs horizontal. The three-horned Triceratops may have used its famous headgear more for display than for fighting, whereas some theropod dinosaurs (such as Anzu wyliei, the notorious “Chicken from Hell”) would have closely resembled their modern descendants—modern birds.

Dinosaur Exhibition Layout

Many museum exhibitions group extinct species according to geologic time, but this exhibition takes this concept several steps further. In this exhibition, dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals are shown in extraordinarily detailed reconstructions of their respective environments. Like the dinosaurs themselves, the habitats in this exhibition are firmly grounded in scientific evidence.

A panicked Apatosaurus smashes a small tree known from fossils found in the same Jurassic-aged rocks. A sculpted trackway of a hungry T. rex is based directly on the only known footprint of this terrifying meat-eater. The cat-sized Cretaceous mammal Didelphodon angrily confronts a much larger Triceratops. In short, in our museum’s exhibition, when dinosaur species are exhibited together, they actually lived together—their fossils are found in the same rock formations, and in many cases, the same quarries.

  • First Floor
triceratops
Visitors in Dinosaurs in their Time
herbivores in Dinosaurs in their Time

Meet our Vertebrate Paleontologists

Lamanna, Matt

Matt Lamanna, Ph.D.

Mary R Dawson Associate Curator

Learn More

sarah davis

Sarah Davis, Ph.D.

Collection Manager

Learn More

Meet the rest of the Fossil Vertebrate (Vertebrate Paleontology) Section

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Travels with a Sketchbook: A Natural History Artist’s Observations at the Museum

Carnegie Museum of Natural History has a large and expansive collection of artifacts, oddities, and wonders. It also has its fair share of mounted animals and skeletons on display, which makes it an ideal spot for the wandering artist. Where else can an artist study both extinct and extant species up close and in great detail? If, like me, you’re an illustrator who loves to draw animals, you could, for example, grab your sketchbook and head to the museum’s Bird Hall to get a close look at the flightless dodo (Raphus cucullatus). Driven to extinction by European colonists during the 1600s, early artists’ renderings provide some of the best evidence for the dodo’s appearance in life. Perhaps surprisingly, this bird is now known to be closely related to pigeons!

Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) in Bird Hall at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Sketch by the author.

If your tastes are more prehistoric, check out the museum’s sprawling Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition. Travel back in time to ancient seas and imagine the graceful movements of the plesiosaur Dolichorhynchops bonneri while the giant carnivorous mosasaur Tylosaurus proriger hovers ominously above you. These marine reptile groups vanished in the mass extinction that also wiped out non-avian dinosaurs roughly 66 million years ago.

Skeleton of the short-necked plesiosaur Dolichorhynchops bonneri in the Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Sketch by the author.

Or perhaps you’re more interested in observing and sketching modern day animals? If so, visit the Hall of North American Wildlife and Hall of African Wildlife on the museum’s second floor. Get up close and personal with the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) trio and capture their anatomy in detail. It’s the safest way to do so – not to mention the only way to do so here in Western Pennsylvania! (Reports of alligators in our rivers notwithstanding.)

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) in the Hall of African Wildlife at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Sketch by the author.

So, my fellow artists and nature lovers, as I hope this post has shown, there are scores of species to inspire you here at the museum. Grab your sketchbook and come on over!

Hannah Smith is an intern working with Scientific Illustrator Andrew McAfee in the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees, interns, and volunteers are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

Blog author: Smith, Hannah
Publication date: August 12, 2019

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Free Public Tours

Take a Free Tour on the Weekends
Join our expert Natural History Interpreters for public tours, free with admission. See highlights of favorite exhibitions, learn fun facts, and have your burning questions answered. Tours meet on Saturdays and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. at the entrance to Dinosaurs in Their Time.

Meet at the entrance to Dinosaurs in Their Time.

Tours will run on Saturdays and Sundays through the month of August.

 

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My Guildey Pleasure

By Andrew McAfee

As the Scientific Illustrator for the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, I spend most of my time in the museum interpreting and representing the paleontologists’ work in visual form. Most of this work takes place at a desk with a computer. But as a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI), I spend one week per year away from the desk, learning new techniques in the field and sharing a few of my own.

The GNSI is an organization of scientists and science illustrators founded in 1968 by illustrators at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The purpose of the GNSI is to advance science illustration by facilitating the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques among its members.

Every year around July, the GNSI has a conference that brings members from all around the world together for a week of plenary speakers, technique expositions, lectures, and workshops. It’s a wonderful opportunity to commune with colleagues in the field of scientific illustration and acquire new perspectives and technical abilities.

Andrew McAfee with his digital painting of Mansourasaurus 
Andrew McAfee with his digital painting of Mansourasaurus (upper left) on display in GNSI’s 50th anniversary exhibition, Visualize: Art Revealing Science, at AAAS headquarters. Photo: Reid Psaltis.

I joined the GNSI in 2013 and have not missed a conference since. This year’s event marked the 50th anniversary of the Guild’s formation and represented a homecoming, returning to Washington, DC. As a part of our anniversary celebration, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—known for, among other things, publishing one of the world’s foremost scientific journals, Science—hosted our annual members’ juried exhibition.

This year I was honored to have two pieces selected for exhibition in the show: my reconstructions of the recently-named dinosaurs Mansourasaurus shahinae and Tratayenia rosalesi, both completed at Carnegie Museum of Natural History under the guidance of paleontologist Matt Lamanna. I was proud to represent the museum and it was gratifying to see my work sharing walls with the stellar work of my colleagues in the AAAS gallery.

Visualize: Art Revealing Science, the 50th anniversary GNSI exhibit, will be on display at AAAS headquarters until October 15, 2018.

Andrew McAfee is Scientific Illustrator for the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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The Two-Headed Dinosaur

Apatosaurus is a sauropod, or long-necked plant-eating dinosaur, that lived in western North America during the late Jurassic Period roughly 150 million years ago. In the early 20th century, scientists couldn’t agree on what kind of head Apatosaurus had. No skull had ever been found attached to a neck of this dinosaur. So, when Carnegie Museum of Natural History mounted its most complete Apatosaurus skeleton in 1915, it did so without including a skull.

Apatosaurus louisae (right) as it was originally mounted in 1915, without a skull. At left is the skeleton of its relative Diplodocus carnegii.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s skeleton of Apatosaurus louisae (right) as it was originally mounted in 1915, without a skull. At left is the skeleton of its relative Diplodocus carnegii, better known as ‘Dippy.’ Credit: Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The mount stood headless until 1932, when the museum followed prevailing scientific opinion of the day and placed a blunt-snouted, broad-toothed skull on the Apatosaurus. It remained there for another 47 years.

Apatosaurus and Diplodocus skeletons
Apatosaurus (right) and Diplodocus, ca. 1932, after a skull of the blunt-snouted sauropod Camarasaurus lentus had been mounted on the Apatosaurus skeleton. Credit: Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

In 1978, however, Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dave Berman and museum research associate Jack McIntosh reasoned that a very different, more Diplodocus-like skull found with the Apatosaurus skeleton back in 1910 was most probably the correct one. A subsequent discovery of a still-connected Apatosaurus skull and neck proved them correct. In 1979, the museum’s Apatosaurus louisae was finally fitted with its proper skull – more than seven decades after its discovery! It remains that way today, on public exhibit in the museum’s dinosaur gallery, Dinosaurs in Their Time.

Apatosaurus Louise
Apatosaurus as it looks today, displayed with its correct skull, which closely resembles that of its relative, Diplodocus. Credit: Melinda McNaugher, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Matt Lamanna is a paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.  Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Did you know that the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology’s…

t. rex in Dinosaurs in their Time

Did you know that the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology’s collection contains more than 460 type, or original, specimens? Type specimens are the specimens upon which individual species are (and always will be) based.

Among these Carnegie type specimens are those of several well-known dinosaurs—Diplodocus carnegii, Apatosaurus louisae (aka ‘Brontosaurus’), and the ‘Chicken from Hell’ Anzu wyliei.

We also have the type specimen of most famous dinosaur of all, Tyrannosaurus rex!