The Illinois Center for Paleontology at the Prairie Research Institute is home to an extensive collection of fossils from around the world. These specimens help us gain new insights into what the Earth was like millions of years ago.

Particular strengths of PRI’s paleontological collections include fossil plants and insects from the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) of Illinois, a large collection of Midwestern Pleistocene mollusks, the historically significant Milton Sanderson collection of Early Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic, and a rapidly growing collection of fossil insects from across the globe, ranging in age from Carboniferous to Pleistocene.