The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy is a part of the French National Museum of Natural History. It is situated in the Jardin des plantes in Paris near the Gare d'Austerlitz. The Gallery of Comparative Anatomy, holds nearly a thousand skeletons and interprets their organization and classification. The Gallery of Paleontology presents a famous collection of fossil vertebrates, fossil invertebrates and fossil plants. Among the most appreciated pieces by the public is worth mentioning a series of dinosaur skeleton casts but also a Tyrannosaurus skull, an authentic skull of Triceratops, an authentic Compsognathus skeleton, and some authentic fossilised skeletons of other extinct animals like Sarcosuchus, Cynthiacetus, Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus primigenius, Megatherium, Thalassocnus, Ursus spelaeus, Panthera leo spelaea, Aepyornis and many others.
History
The project of a "Gallery of Paleontology, Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology" started in the late 1880s when the galerie de Zoologie was inaugurated in 1889. The collections in the former galleries of comparative anatomy were running out of room in the 1880s and 1890s and the inauguration of the Gallery of Zoology encouraged this project, proposed by professors Albert Gaudry, Georges Pouchet and Armand de Quatrefages, 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 FrenchNational Museum of Natural History and the Exposition universelle de Paris of 1900. In 1892 the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle appointed the French architectFerdinand Dutert 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 were transferred to the new building, which was inaugurated on July the 21st, 1898. 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 remarkable Gallery building, designed by the architect Ferdinand Dutert consists of two floors which are sorted in three levels 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 was occupied by the Anthropology collections, but in 1937 these collections migrated to the new musée de l'Homme. Since then the second floor displays the fossil invertebrates and, in addition and since the early 2010s, the fossil plants.
