File:The American Museum of Natural History - pictorial guide (1967) (17490385803).jpg

Title: The American Museum of Natural History : pictorial guide
Identifier: american00amer (find matches)
Year: 1967 (1960s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: American Museum of Natural History; Natural history museums
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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EARLY MAMMALS The bizarre animals that ushered in the Age of Mammals—63 million years ago—are brought to life in this hall. The visitor is taken back through millions of years of geologic time to the period when the dinosaurs were on the wane, and quicker, warm-blooded animals came in- to prominence. It was a time of awesome beasts with horn-studded snouts, tearing claws, and dagger-like teeth, a time when mammalian life was burgeoning as na- ture was experimenting with new and di- verse forms of life. Skeletons, skulls, and other fossil re- mains; paintings, charts, and maps show how the early mammals changed struc- turally as they adapted to new conditions. Some became grazers, or runners; others swimmers, hunters, or fliers; and some, such as the primates, developed grasp- ing arms and hands. Dominating the Hall of Early Mammals is a spectacular group of fossil skeletons of giant ground sloths and glyptodonts. In the background is a pastel chalk repre- sentation of the South American pampas, the favorite habitat of these creatures un- til they became extinct a few thousand years ago. Throughout the hall, paintings bring to life the diverse forms of early mammalian life. High on a grassy hilltop above an Asian plain stands Andrewsarchus, a creature that lived some 19 million years ago. The largest carnivorous animal that ever walked on land, Andrewsarchus was twice the size of the Kodiak bear of Alaska. Near the painting is the beast's skull, the only one known to exist, found by a Museum expedition to Mongolia. This exhibition also tells the story of fossils. Photographs, drawings, and other graphic materials show how fossils are collected and prepared, identified and classified, studied, and put on exhi- bition. Techniques of restoring and re- constructing entire animals from fossil- ized remains are also shown. A GIANT TORTOISE FROM INDIA
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