American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History. Bashford Dean Hall of Fossil Fishes.; Dean Memorial Room of Fossil Fishes; Bashford Dean Memorial Hall of Fossil Fishes; Bashford Dean Hall of Fossil Fishes
birth: 1929
death: 1952
Permanent exhibition. Opened June 10, 1929 and closed approximately 1950-1952. Located on Floor 4, Section 5. The Bashford Dean Hall of Fossil Fishes at the American Museum of Natural History was located in the tower room adjoining the Hall of Fossil Reptiles. Curators included Bashford Dean and William K. Gregory (1, 1929, p. 20; 1, 1936 p. 11-12).
The Bashford Dean Hall of Fossil Fishes featured many of the same exhibits as its immediate predecessor, the Fossil Fish Hall. These exhibits included a fossil aquarium, a model of Dinichthys suspended from the ceiling, and restoration jaws of the fossil shark, Carcharodon megalodan (2, 1931, p. 111). A bronze portrait plaque of Bashford Dean stood at the entrance to the halls. In 1935-1936 evolutionary charts were installed, including an illuminated diagram illustrating the sequence of different groups of fishes throughout the fossil record and another illustrating the classification and anatomy of the various groups of the fossil ostracoderms (1, 1936, p. 11-12). The fossil fish exhibits moved to an alcove in the Jurassic Dinosaur Hall between 1950 and 1953.