Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Paleontology

By Core Research Center

USGS Denver Fossil Collection Moved to Washington DC

New Home is the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

NMNH Paleobiology

For more than 100 years the USGS maintained a fossil collection in Denver.  The move to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC was completed in April 2021. Delayed by Covid-19, the NMNH staff will be unpacking and processing the acquisition throughout 2022. The collection will be available for study at NMNH once this large task is completed.

Specific links to more information about the USGS collection now housed at NMNH will be added here when the NMNH processes the material and updates their website. 

For more than a century, USGS scientists discovered, studied, and named new species of ancient lifeforms and used fossils to define geologic ages and correlations of rock formations.  The collections advanced research on climate change, faunal diversity, and extinction events.  Although the fossils have moved to the Smithsonian, the vast legacy of USGS paleontological research is represented in reports, papers, and maps which can be found by searching the USGS Publications Warehouse.  Some of the publications are available to view and download from the Publications Warehouse website, others may be available in libraries.