Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée

The Galerie de Paleontologie et d'Anatomie comparee is a display hall of the Natural History Museum in the Jardin des Plantes, opened for the 1898 World Fair. The first sight on entering is iconic: an endless marching column of vertebrate skeletons, led by humans, followed by chimpanzees, horses, walruses, down to fish, arranged on the comparative-anatomy principles of Georges Cuvier. Upstairs, dinosaurs and mammal fossils from 19th-century expeditions tower over the visitor. The cast-iron frame and tall windows turn the hall into a cathedral of evolution. Magical for children and, for adults, a rare intact piece of science history, almost unchanged since opening.