MNA holds approximately 150,000 paleontology specimens (fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants, and tracks and traces) from most of the fossil bearing geologic units in the region. Strengths from the Paleozoic Era include armored fish from the Devonian, Mississippian and Pennsylvanian invertebrates and plants, Permian sharks from the Kaibab Formation, and vertebrate and invertebrate tracks from the Coconino Sandstone. Significant Mesozoic fossils include plants and tracks from the Triassic Moenkopi Formation; and dinosaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, other reptiles, mammals, and plants from the Triassic Chinle Formation, Jurassic Kayenta Formation, and numerous Cretaceous formations in the area. The collection also contains a number of important Pleistocene and Holocene specimens, most notably a collection from the National Park Service that until 2009 was housed at Northern Arizona University Quaternary Sciences Program (NAU-QSP). 

Only a portion of paleontological specimens are currently available on the portal and additional records will continue to be added. Additional images will be posted as they become available. Learn more about our Paleontology collection.

Scroll to browse paleontological specimens or enter terms and click Search to find results within this collection.