The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy (in French, ''galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée'') is a part of the French National Museum of Natural History (''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'', MNHN). It is situated in the '' Jardin des plantes'' in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

near the Gare d'Austerlitz. The Gallery of Comparative Anatomy (occupying the ground floor), holds nearly a thousand skeletons and interprets their organization and classification. The Gallery of

Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

(occupying the first and second floor) presents a famous collection of fossil

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

s, fossil invertebrates and fossil plants. Among the most appreciated pieces by the public is worth mentioning a series of

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

skeleton casts (''

Diplodocus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek δι� ...

'', ''

Iguanodon ''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning ' iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the late Jurassic Period to the early Cretaceous Period of Asia, ...

'', ''

Allosaurus ''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alludin ...

'', ''

Carnotaurus ''Carnotaurus'' (; ) is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, probably sometime between 71 and 69 million years ago. The only species is ''Carnotaurus sastrei''. Known from a single well-p ...

'', ''

Tarbosaurus ''Tarbosaurus'' ( ; meaning "alarming lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that flourished in Asia about 70 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous Period, considered to contain a single known species, ''Tarbosaurus ba ...

'', ''

Unenlagia ''Unenlagia'' (meaning "half-bird" in Latinized Mapudungun) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period. The genus ''Unenlagia'' has been assigned two species: ''U. comahuensis'', ...

'', ''

Dromaeosaurus ''Dromaeosaurus'' (, "running lizard") is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous period (middle late Campanian and Maastrichtian), sometime between 80 and 69 million years ago, in Alberta, Canada and the ...

'', '' Bambiraptor'') but also a ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

'' skull (cast of specimen AMNH 5027), an authentic skull of ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...

'', an authentic ''

Compsognathus ''Compsognathus'' (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''kompsos''/κομψός; "elegant", "refined" or "dainty", and ''gnathos''/γνάθος; "jaw") is a genus of small, bipedalism, bipedal, carnivore, carnivorous theropoda, theropod dinosaur. Members o ...

'' skeleton, and some authentic fossilised skeletons of other extinct animals like ''

Sarcosuchus ''Sarcosuchus'' (; ) is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian, 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and ...

'', ''

Cynthiacetus ''Cynthiacetus'' is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale that lived during the Late Eocene ( Bartonian-Priabonian, .) Specimens have been found in the southeastern United States and Peru ( Otuma Formation). Description ''Cynthiacet ...

'', ''

Mammuthus meridionalis ''Mammuthus meridionalis'', or the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth native to Europe and Central Asia from the Gelasian stage of the Early Pleistocene, living from 2.5–0.8 mya. Taxonomy The taxonomy of extinct elephant ...

'', ''

Mammuthus primigenius The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus subp ...

'', ''

Megatherium ''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species ' ...

'', ''

Thalassocnus ''Thalassocnus'' is an extinct genus of semiaquatic ground sloths from the Miocene and Pliocene of the Pacific South American coast. It is monotypic within the subfamily Thalassocninae. The five species—''T. antiquus'', ''T. natans'', ''T. lit ...

'', '' Ursus spelaeus'', ''

Panthera leo spelaea ''Panthera spelaea'', also known as the Eurasian cave lion, European cave lion or steppe lion, is an extinct ''Panthera'' species that most likely evolved in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage, less than 600,000 years ago. Phylo ...

'', ''

Aepyornis ''Aepyornis'' is a genus of aepyornithid, one of three genera of ratite birds endemic to Madagascar until their extinction sometime around 1000 CE. The species ''A. maximus'' weighed up to , and until recently was regarded as the largest known ...

'' and many others.

History

The project of a "Gallery of

, Comparative Anatomy and

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

" started in the late 1880s when the ''Galerie de Zoologie'' (Gallery of Zoology) was inaugurated in 1889. The collections in the former galleries of comparative anatomy (founded by Georges Cuvier in 1802 and constituted by bones, skeletons and preserved organs) were running out of room in the 1880s and 1890s and the inauguration of the Gallery of Zoology (mainly constituted by stuffed animals) encouraged this project, proposed by professors Albert Gaudry (Professor of

Georges Pouchet Charles Henri Georges Pouchet (26 February 1833 – 29 March 1894) was a French naturalist and anatomist. Life He was born in Rouen, the son of naturalist Félix Archimède Pouchet (1800–1872). In 1865 he became chief of anatomical work ...

(Professor of Comparative Anatomy) and Armand de Quatrefages (Professor of

), who wished to preserve and present to the public collections of great historic and scientific importance. In addition, two approaching events led to make concrete the project: the first centennial of the French National Museum of Natural History (1793-1893) and the '' Exposition Universelle de Paris'' of 1900. In 1892 the ''Muséum national D'Histoire Naturelle'' appointed the French architect

Ferdinand Dutert Charles Louis Ferdinand Dutert (21 October 1845 - 12 February 1906) was a French architect. Life Charles Louis Ferdinand Dutert was born on 21 October 1845 in Douai, son of a merchant of that town. He was admitted to the École nationale supé ...

to design the building and produce the drawing plans, and the works were launched in 1893, lasting until 1898. After that, the collections in the former building (Galleries of Comparative Anatomy, founded by Cuvier in 1802, and Gallery of Anthropology, founded by Quatrefages in 1855) were transferred to the new building, which was inaugurated on July the 21st, 1898.Luc Vives and Cécile Colin-Fromont, ''Les Galeries d'Anatomie comparée et de Paléontologie'', éditions du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle / éditions Artlys, Paris, September 2012 (reprint, January 2015), photographs by Bernard Faye, Even in the present day, the collections derive from the great expeditions of the traveller-naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries as well as from the ''

ménagerie du Jardin des plantes The ''ménagerie du Jardin des plantes'' is a zoo in Paris, France, belonging to the botanical garden '' Jardin des Plantes''. Founded in 1794, largely with animals brought from the royal zoo of the Palace of Versailles, abandoned because of the F ...

'' (one of the oldest zoos in the world). The remarkable Gallery building, designed by the architect

consists of two floors which are sorted in three levels (ground floor, first floor and second floor) and its surface area is approximately . The gallery, made of stone and metal, is almost long, the facades are decorated with sculptures inspired by naturalists and large windows afford abundant natural light. Originally, the second floor (two rooms and the mezzanine over the first floor) was occupied by the Anthropology collections, but in 1937 these collections migrated to the new ''

musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne ...

''. Since then the second floor displays the fossil invertebrates and, in addition, and since the early 2010s, the fossil plants.

Gallery

File:Galerie danatomie comparee.jpg, Half of the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy, ground floor of the building. File:PanoramaGalerieAnatomieComparee.jpeg, Ground floor, panoramic view File:Galerie_de_paléontologie.jpg, First and second floor of the building (photograph taken from the second floor mezzanine). File:Dinosaur skeleton, Museum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.jpg, ''

Allosaurus fragilis ''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alludi ...

'' on the first floor File:Aepyornis side.JPG,

on the first floor

Notes

References

External links

Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée
on ''hominides.com''
Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée
on ''mnhn.fr'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Galerie De Paleontologie Et Danatomie Comparee Museums in Paris Natural history museums in France 1898 establishments in France Museums established in 1898 Buildings and structures in the 5th arrondissement of Paris