Museum of Paleontology

2025-2026 Newsletter - check it out!

Gold Sustainability Award for RMC The UMMP is a research museum consisting of collections used primarily for research. The collections are not open to the public. However, there are a number of UMMP specimens on display at the U-M Museum of Natural History, which is free and open to the public. The popular Fossil Prep Lab in the U-M Museum of Natural History is a UMMP lab. Our faculty and students work in this space preparing fossil specimens for our collections.

Bite by Bite: How Jaws Drove Fish Evolution Research led by UMMP Postdoctoral Fellow Emily Troyer and Rafael Rivero-Vega, co-first author and recent U-M doctoral graduate, shows that ancient lobe-finned fishes rapidly evolved new jaws, sparking innovations that shaped vertebrate history. Featured in Michigan News.

A Robust Research Collection Over 2 million specimens in three distinct collections: vertebrates, invertebrates, and paleobotany

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Recent News

Fossil discovery fills in missing information about modern fish evolution

Fish have a missing chapter in their history, but that is changing.

The 2025-2026 Year in Review newsletter is here

See what we were up to last year!

all news

Visit the U-M Museum of Natural History to see some of our collections and our Fossil Prep Lab

Robin Scheduling

Shuttle Schedule: Central Campus to/from Research Museums Center

BSB Room Schedules (login only)

UMMP Portal

The UMMP Portal houses resources for students, faculty, and researchers related to museum policies, procedures, and operations.

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