July 31, 2010

Jeanne Kelly, Supervisor of the Fossil Prep Lab has retired after 37 years of service to the AMNH. We wish Jeanne much joy and fun in retirement!

July 20, 2010

Dr. Niles Eldredge, Curator of Fossil Invertebrates has retired. We wish Dr. Eldredge health and happiness in his retirement.

May 21, 2010

The move of the Fossil Proboscidea, Sirenia and Hyracoidea collections from Floor 1 of Building 3A is now complete and the collection has re-opened to visitors on Floor 2.

May 4, 2010

For information about summer internships in the Division, please click here.

April 1, 2010

As part of the project to re-house types and Perissodactyla, the Division has launched a new website about Perissodactyls here.

October 16, 2009

The Fall 2009 newsletter of Heritage Preservation published a supportive review of the Paleontology Portal Collections Management site.

October 13, 2009

The Division of Paleontology has launched a new look website. Check back regularly for updates.

September 10, 2009

Ivy Rutzky, the long time Collection Manager for Fossil Fish, and Fossil Mammal loans has retired. We wish Ivy health and happiness in her new life in Georgia. Carl Mehling will be managing Fossil Fish and Fossil Mammal loans; Judy Galkin will be assisting with Fossil Fish visitors.

January 2, 2009

Dr. Chris Norris has left the Division for a new position at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale. We wish him every success at his new job and will miss him at the AMNH.

March 30, 2009

Work has begun on the move of the Fossil Proboscidea, Sirenia and Hyracoidea collections from Floor 1 to Floor 2 of Building 3A. Effective today, this part of the collection will be closed to visitors. The estimated date for reopening is May 2010.

November 18, 2008

Read about progress on the Division's NSF-funded Perissodactyl Project on this new webpage.

November 7, 2008

Now live on-line, as part of the Paleontology Portal project, is the Collections Management Module, a resource for managing fossil collections developed by AMNH with funding from the National Science Foundation.

July 8, 2008

The move of the fossil horse collection is now well under way. Our NSF-funded summer interns have begun work on inventory and rehousing of the collection - you can read about their experiences on the project blog, here. As part of the move, we have had to close the 1st floor of the collection, which houses proboscidians, hyraxes, and sirenians, to visitors, effective today. The estimated date of reopening is the fall of 2009.

April 15, 2008

We regret to inform you that Yaoming Hu, former student in the Division of Paleontology and a friend to many of us, passed away this weekend after a long illness. Messages from Divisional Chair and Frick Curator John J. Flynn and from Yuanqing Wang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing are available here.

March 6, 2008

It is with great sadness that we inform you that Malcolm McKenna, Frick Curator of Paleontology Emeritus, passed away on March 3, 2008. A message from Senior Vice President & Provost of Science Michael J. Novacek is available here. To read a full obituary of Malcolm, click here. A 2004 biography of Malcolm by Susan Bell, together with a bibliography of his publications, can be downloaded here.

February 28, 2008

Work has commenced on the move of the fossil horse collection from the 2nd to the 3rd floor of Building 3A. Effective today, this part of the collection is closed to visitors. The estimated date for reopening is August 2008. The Division of Paleontology has a small number of paid internships to work in the fossil mammal collection during the summer of 2008. Details of the internship program can be found here. Closing date for applications is March 28, 2008.

December 13, 2007

The move of the non-equine perissodactyls (e.g. rhinos, tapirs, chalicotheres, and titanotheres) from the 3rd floor of Building 3A is now complete and the collection has re-opened to visitors on floor 6. A progress report can be downloaded here. The next floor to be moved will be floor 2, which houses fossil horses. This collection will be closed to visitors in February 2008, and is projected to reopen in August 2008.

June 20, 2007

The beta version of the PaleoCat database is now available for public use. Access to specimen images via the galleries is still disabled, but specimen images can be searched and retrieved via the database.

June 18, 2007

The Paleo database has moved to a new server and a new database, PaleoCat, which replaces the Mesonyx database that has been on-line since 2003. Some features, notably specimen image galleries, will be temporarily disabled while we transition to the new system.

January 12, 2007

The collections database is now back on-line.

January 9, 2007

The collections database is currently off-line for maintenance and may be unavailable for several days. We apologize for any inconvenience.

August 26, 2006

Work has now begun on the next phase of the Building 3A project, which is the move of the non-equine perissodactyls from the 3rd floor to the 6th floor. Groups affected include rhinos, tapirs, chalicotheres, and titanotheres. Effective today, this part of the collection is closed to visitors. The estimated date for reopening is April 2007.