The Vertebrate Paleontology collection in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology is managed and employed as a resource for research and
teaching in the areas of vertebrate evolution, functional anatomy,
and systematics. Since its founding in 1860, the MCZ has amassed
approximately 90,000 specimens of fossil fish, amphibians, reptiles,
birds and mammals. The narrative below surveys some of the major
holdings, but is not intended to be a comprehensive description.
Various specimens of fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals that
are on display in the MCZ's public exhibition areas are available
for research access by pre-arrangement.
Fishes
The collection represents a spectrum from the earliest known
vertebrates to late Tertiary teleosts. The collection was established
by Louis Agassiz who brought with him considerable European material
initially obtained for the Natural History Collections of Harvard
College. In the 1860's, Agassiz purchased a large number of British
Paleozoic sharks and rhipidistians from the famous collection
of the Earl of Enniskillen. The Marder collection, also British
Paleozoic sharks, was obtained at about the same time, as was
the C. F. Hartt collection of Cretaceous teleosts from Ceará,
Brazil. Alexander Agassiz acquired a number of important additional
collections in the 1880's. Among these are the Haeberlein collection
of exquisitely preserved fish and other vertebrates from the lithographic
limestone at Solenhofen; the Terrell collection from the Cleveland
Shale, including the giant arthrodire Dinichthys; the Stock collection
of fish from the Scottish Coal Measures; and Sternberg's collection
of predaceous teleosts, some very large, from the Cretaceous Niobrara
chalk. Sizable acquisitions of Eocene teleosts from Wyoming and
Monte Bolca, Italy, were also the gift of Alexander Agassiz. A
large quantity of Devonian fish from Iowa, and Silurian and Devonian
ostracoderms from Scotland and Scandinavia, represent major holdings
of early material. Additionally, there are smaller collections
of jawless fishes, including the Patten collection, from a number
of other localities in North America and Europe. Palaeoniscoids
are represented by an extensive series of forms from the Devonian
of Scotland, Lower Carboniferous of North America and England,
Upper Carboniferous of North America, Permian of England and Germany,
and Upper Triassic of North America. During the 1890's and early
1900's, C. R. Eastman added a quantity of important North American
Paleozoic fishes.
Devonian dipnoans, arthrodires and osteolepids from Scotland,
Devonian arthrodires and rhipidistians from Quebec, a Carboniferous
fish fauna from Cape Breton, and dipnoans, rhipidistians, sharks
and other fish from the Permian of the American southwest were
added by A. S. Romer in the mid XXth century.
Other smaller collections have been added from time to time, including
specimens of exhibition quality from North America, Europe and
Australia, crossopterygians from the Carboniferous at Linton,
Ohio, and a collection of Triassic fish in nodules from Madagascar.
Amphibians and Reptiles
Early acquisitions include stegocephalians from the lower Permian
of Lebach, Germany, (originally part of the Bronn collection)
and from the Linton Coal Measures of Ohio; anurans from the Miocene
of Germany; and finally, well preserved material of Eryops,
Buettneria, and Diplocaulus.
The Sternberg collection from the Permian of Texas, obtained in
1882, contains important specimens of Seymouria, Captorhinus
and Diadectes. Additionally, the MCZ acquired classic specimens
of Jurassic crocodilians and Triassic ichthyosaurs from England
and Germany, Triassic phytosaurs from the American west and southwest,
and giant plesiosaurs from Australia.
Of principal importance is a diverse faunal collection from the
Triassic of Brazil and Argentina, including cynodonts, dicynodonts,
rhynchosaurs, archosaurs as well as various amphibians. Additionally,
the MCZ holds a representative sample of the Rhaeto-Liassic fissure
fill fauna from Bridgend in England, as well as a select representation
of various groups, including mosasaurs, dinosaurs and pterodactyls.
Elements of the early Cretaceous fauna of the Cloverly Formation
of Montana include a number of dinosaur specimens, several of
them nearly complete, as well as lizards, amphibians and dwarf
crocodiles. The early Jurassic fauna of the Kayenta Formation
of northeastern Arizona is represented by archosaurs (dinosaurs,
pterosaurs), tritylodontids, turtles, sphenodontids, frogs and
caecilians.
Birds
The MCZ's collection of fossil birds, previously held in the
Ornithology Department, have been transferred to Vertebrate Paleontology.
A few specimens are European in provenance, but most are North
American, and include material from: the Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk;
the Eocene Green River Formation; the Oligocene of Goshen Hole,
Wyoming; the Lower Miocene, Agate Springs, Nebraska; and mid-Pliocene
deposits of Florida.
Mammals
A modest assortment of mammalian fossils was deposited by Louis
Agassiz. Alexander Agassiz subsequently made major acquisitions
through the purchase of Garman and Clifford's collections from
the White River Oligocene and the Pleistocene of Nebraska, Sternberg's
collection of Pliocene rhinoceroses from Kansas, and Schlaikjer's
diverse Oligocene and Miocene materials from Wyoming, South Dakota,
and Nebraska. Major faunal collections are those from the Miocene
at Thomas Farm, Florida, from the Paleocene at Shotgun Butte,
Wyoming, and from the Cretaceous at Bug Creek, Montana.
Less extensive faunal collections are from the early Eocene Willwood
Formation of Wyoming, the late Eocene Uinta Formation of Utah,
and the Oligocene Jebel el Qatrani Formation (Fayum, Egypt). Other
holdings from North America include the Earl Douglass collection
of cetaceans from the Tertiary of South Carolina, the Moreno collection
of ground sloths, and Cuban Pleistocene material, chiefly rodent,
obtained by Barbour, Brooks, and Warner.
The Rossignol collection of Eocene mammals represents one of the
unique holdings of fossil mammals in the MCZ, for the quarries
from which these well preserved specimens were obtained have since
been destroyed. The collections of Duval, Bronn, and Eser also
represent the European Tertiary with both types and other specimens.
In addition, the collection has modest assemblages of fossil mammals
from the Tertiary of South America, including several complete
specimens, and a small collection of Australian marsupials.
Mesozoic mammals are represented by a collection of cranial and
postcranial elements of Morganucodon obtained through exchange
with the University Museum of Zoology (Cambridge, England), Dinnetherium
nezorum from the early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of northeastern
Arizona, and Gobiconodon ostromi and triconodontids from
the early Cretaceous Cloverly Formation of Montana.
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