Natural History Galleries

Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals

Level 2, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal
This gallery explores the rise of mammals through the Ice Age that followed the great extinction of the dinosaurs, which in turn led to the amazing biodiversity of the Earth today. On display are over 400 impressive and unusual North and South American specimens, including 30 fossil skeletons of extinct mammals, and 166 non-mammalian specimens, from the Cenozoic Era (from 65 million years ago to the present). Accompanying the large mammals are hundreds of fossils representing other life such as fossil plants, insects, corals, fish, turtles and smaller mammals.

Located in the south end of the west Crystal, this gallery begins with the mammals that survived the events leading to the demise of dinosaurs. Several of these specimens are distant ancestors of present-day mammals, such as the dog-sized Hyracotherium, thought to be one of the earliest horse ancestors. This area also highlights large grazing herbivores and carnivores, like the sabre-toothed nimravid Dinictis (a cat look-alike) and a collection of well-preserved 50-million-year-old fossils from Wyoming, including a large palm frond, and the oldest known complete bat skeletons.

A section entitled A World Apart explores the biodiversity that evolved in present-day South America during a period of continental isolation that spanned more than 60 million years. Specimens such as a giant ground sloth, a jaguar, and an extinct horse are on display, as well as the newly-arrived species that migrated from North America when the continents joined, including the dire wolf, western horse, and sabre-toothed cat.

The gallery also explores the Pleistocene Epoch (the last two million years), the time of the Ice Age, with a focus on specimens from Ontario. Fascinating skeletal mounts of a mastodon, a giant beaver, and a stag moose, are on display, as well as other specimens such as a short-faced bear, one of the last native horses, and Toronto’s namesake Torontoceros, an extinct species of deer.

An exhibit on amber, fossilized tree resin which contains natural preservatives, provides a superb window into the past by preserving insects and other delicate creatures that are otherwise rarely found as fossils.

The Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals is located adjacent to the Temerty Dinosaur Galleries.