Paleontology Database
Catalog data and images retrieved from this database system are intended for educational and scholarly use only and may not be used for any commercial purposes without prior consent of the American Museum of Natural History. If you wish to publish images from the database or website, please consult the Research Library.
If you do not find what you are looking for, please contact the relevant Curator-in-Charge or collections staff. We cannot guarantee the completeness or the accuracy of the data and accept no liability for any use made of these data.
Please note the following:
- The ‘Taxon’ search field is not hierarchical; thus, the search term will only return specimens identified to that exact taxonomic level. For example, a search for ‘Tyrannosauridae’ will return 38 specimens that have been identified to family level only. It will not return specimens referred to species in Tyrannosauridae, such as Tyrannosaurus rex. We plan to amend this in the next version of the online catalog, which is in progress.
- Some invertebrate paleontology catalog numbers (with the prefix FI or FI-CU) appear with asterisks as their suffixes. This is due to an ongoing data-cleaning project. The asterisks are not part of the official specimen number and should not be used as such. This is a legacy from the old divisional database structure, and we are working to address this. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to collections staff if you have any questions.
How to cite AMNH catalog numbers in publications (using an example number of “12345”):
Please verify all specimen acronyms and numbers with collections staff prior to publication.
Fossil Amphibians, Reptiles and Birds: AMNH FARB 12345
Fossil Fish: AMNH FF 12345
Fossil Mammals:
- If the specimen was part of the Frick collection: AMNH F:AM 12345
- If the specimen was not part of the Frick collection: AMNH FM 67890
Fossil Plants: AMNH FP 12345
Fossil Invertebrates:
- If the specimen was once part of the Columbia University collection: AMNH-FI-CU-12345
- If the specimen has been re-numbered or was never part of the Columbia University collection: AMNH-FI-12345
- Suffixes (where they exist) should be separated from the main catalog number by a dash: AMNH-FI-12345-1
