Fossil Plants

The AMNH Division of Paleontology has had a long history of collecting fossil plants, usually alongside targeted vertebrate fossils.

But only recently – late 2012 – did curating and cataloging of this modest collection really begin. The paleobotany collection is global in scope and has thousands of specimens going back to as old as 400 million years. Particular areas of focus for North America are the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota, the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, and petrifactions.

RT Bird examining the palm frond (AMNH FP 378) before extraction
RT Bird examining the palm frond (AMNH FP 378) before extraction

A highlight of the collection is an Early Cretaceous palm frond collected by departmental field collector Roland Thaxter (“RT”) Bird. It was extracted from the ceiling of a collapsing Colorado coal mine in 1937. This mine was closed down around 1912, and was falling apart when RT collected this specimen, so where this palm frond was collected is doubtlessly caved-in and lost to further collecting.

Fossil Plants Contacts

Curator-in-Charge
Dr. Roger Benson
[email protected]

Visitors and Loans
Carl Mehling
[email protected]