In 1999, the UMNH undertook the next step, hiring a Curator of Paleontology (Scott D. Sampson), Collection Manager of Paleontology (Mike Getty), a Curatorial Assistant (Jude Higgins) and a lab technician (Monica Castro). This program has been very active in its short tenure. For example, the Collection Manager currently oversees 50 volunteers working in the collection area and the preparation lab. The department has also just completed its first season of fossil collecting, targeting several productive formations of Late Cretaceous age in Utah. Given that the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry has shown no indication of being depleted, plans are now underway to reopen this site in the summer of 2001, thereby adding to this already extensive collection.

The UMNH paleontology collection contains fossil vertebrate, invertebrate, and paleobotanical specimens collected from Utah and surrounding western states, as well as numerous international localities. The collection occupies approximately 6,000 square feet in the basement level of the Museum. The collection includes 4,000 fossil invertebrate specimens, and over 7,000 paleobotanical specimens. The paleobotanical collection includes the most extensive assemblage of Triassic fossil plants outside of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as an extensive collection of fossil leaves and insects from the Green River Formation. The fossil vertebrate collection, the largest of the three paleontology collections at the Museum, exceeds 12,000 specimens, including seven holotype specimens and 15 paratypes. Currently, this collection is dominated by classic dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic, including, but not limited to, fossils of Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Camarasaurus.

The highlight of the paleontology collection is the remarkable and extensive dinosaur assemblage from the Late Jurassic Cleveland-Lloyd quarry, which includes the world's largest single collection of a single species of large theropod (Allosaurus fragilis). Additionally, through a generous donation of land, the UMNH owns a dinosaur site, the Long Walk Quarry. This significant site occurs in the Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation.

Specimens collected at this site join thousands of Cretaceous-aged mammal fossils and associated fauna including fish, amphibians, and reptiles from southern Utah. Recent expeditions in the Late Cretaceous outcrops in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Manti-LaSal National Forest have resulted in the addition of significant new dinosaur specimens to the collections, including Utah's first Tyrannosaurus rex, several Ceratopsian (horned) dinosaurs, and hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) remains. Together, these specimens are aiding research on this important, but poorly known time interval in our planet's history. Cenozoic Mammals are also well represented, with a diversity of extinct mammal species from the Uinta and Bridger Basins, as well as Badlands National Park. Pleistocene mammals in the collection include an excellent representative sample of the Bonneville Basin fauna, including mammoth, big horned sheep, musk oxen, camel, horse, bison, short-faced bear, peccary, fox and wolf.