Members of the Department of Paleobiology have been leading vertebrate paleontology expeditions since before the museum was built.  The first dinosaur expeditions were led by Othniel Marsh, then at Yale University , who collected most of the dinosaurs on display in the main exhibit hall.  He was followed by Charles Gilmore, who served as Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians for more than 20 years.  His expeditions added dinosaurs such as Brachyceratops tour collections.

 A long hiatus in dinosaur collecting followed Gilmore’s death in 1945, which would not end until Dr. Michael Brett-Surman began his field work in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming in 1992.  Today the work of finding and collecting new dinosaurs continues, with the addition of a new Curator of Dinosaurs, Dr. Matthew Carrano.  We invite you to take a tour of some of our recent expeditions.