Vertebrate Paleontology

History of the Division

The collections in the Yale Peabody Museum’s Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, other than a few specimens that date from the old Yale College Cabinet, derive from the industry of Othniel Charles Marsh and the wealth of his uncle, the philanthropist George Peabody. In 1866, Marsh was appointed Professor of Paleontology, the first in North America. In 1867, he became curator of the newly endowed Geological Cabinet at the new Peabody Museum, bringing with him 2.5 tons of books and specimens, the bulk accumulated as a Yale College undergraduate and during a lengthy stay in Europe. This collection became the vertebrate paleontology collection.

During a lifetime at Yale, Marsh amassed an impressive collection of vertebrate fossils. While ultimately he, and the Peabody Museum, would become famous for his collection of dinosaurs from the American West—including the type specimens of many of the best known dinosaurs—Marsh’s earliest collections were from the Cretaceous of New Jersey. Under his leadership, the Yale College Scientific Expeditions of 1870–1873 obtained historically and scientifically important collections of mammalian remains. Through these expeditions, the Peabody became the repository for some of the largest collections of uintatheres, titanotheres, fossil horses, and early primates in the United States. These expeditions were also responsible for the Division’s equally impressive collections of mosasaurs, pterosaurs (Pteranodon in particular), the toothed birds Ichthyornis and Hesperornis from the Cretaceous of Kansas, and a sizable collection of fossil fishes from Eocene lake deposits in Wyoming.

After 1874, Marsh relied almost exclusively on “professional” collectors, both local residents and trained people sent to the West by Marsh. A list of Marsh’s associates is a who’s who of the history of vertebrate paleontology and other disciplines: Erwin H. Barbour, David Baldwin, George Baur, Charles Emerson Beecher, Hugh Gibb, George Bird Grinnell, Oscar Harger, John Bell Hatcher, Arthur Lakes, Otto Meyer, Benjamin Mudge, O.A. Peterson, William Reed, George R. Wieland, and Samuel Wendell Williston.

According to biographers Schuchert and LeVene (1940), Marsh named 344 new species and 161 new genera of fossil vertebrates. His genera include Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Eohippus. His work and collections were praised by Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley as some of the most crucial evidence supporting the theory of evolution.

Richard Swann Lull suceeded Marsh in one curatorial capacity or another from 1906 until his death in 1957, also serving as director of the Peabody Museum from 1922 to 1936. It was under his tenure that the Museum moved to its present building, the Great Hall was opened, and the Marsh Collection was made available for research. He and his students M.R. Thorpe, E.L. Troxell and G.G. Simpson, to name a few, inherited the task of identifying and publishing many of the neglected specimens collected by Marsh and his colleagues.Troxell is best remembered for his work on the fossil mammalian fauna of Rock Creek, Texas, whereas Thorpe became a leading expert on oreodonts and served as the Division’s senior curator from 1927 to 1938. Both added to the collections and continued Lull’s work of describing material already in the Marsh Collection.

With Thorpe’s successor G.E. Lewis (1939–1945), the emphasis was once again placed on collecting. As a member of the Yale North India Expeditions, Lewis added a significant collection of fossil primates from the Siwaliks of India and Pakistan to the Peabody’s holdings. He also secured an excellent collection of casts of some of the most important Old World primate specimens. J.T. Gregory (1946–1960) followed Lewis as curator. While much of his tenure was spent heading up renovations to the exhibits and buildings, he also led several expeditions, making substantial collections from New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Elwyn Simons (1960–1977), now at Duke University, and John H. Ostrom (1961–1994) took over from J.T. Gregory, each adding significant collections to the Division’s holdings. Simons led expeditions to Wyoming, the Siwaliks of India and Pakistan and the Fayum of Egypt. Ostrom’s research and writings on the functional morphology of dinosaurs and the evolution of birds served as the main impetus behind the “dinosaur renaissance” at the end of the 20th century. His work on the Early Cretaceous fauna of Wyoming and Montana resulted in the discovery of important new dinosaurs, including Tenontosaurus tilletti, Sauropelta edwardsi, and of course, Deinonychus antirrhopus.
 
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