The project of a "Gallery of Paleontology, Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology" started in the late 1880s when the "Galerie de Zoologie" (Gallery of Zoology) was inaugurated in 1889. The collections in the former galleries of comparative anatomy (founded by Georges Cuvier in 1802 and constituted by bones, skeletons and preserved organs) were running out of room in the 1880s and 1890s and the inauguration of the Gallery of Zoology (mainly constituted by stuffed animals) encouraged this project, proposed by professors Albert Gaudry (Professor of Paleontology), Georges Pouchet (Professor of Comparative Anatomy) and Armand de Quatrefages (Professor of Anthropology), who wished to preserve and present to the public collections of great historic and scientific importance. In addition, two approaching events led to make concrete the project: the first centennial of the French National Museum of Natural History (1793-1893) and the " Exposition Universelle de Paris" of 1900. In 1892 the "Muséum national D'Histoire Naturelle" appointed the French architect Ferdinand Dutert to design the building and produce the drawing plans, and the works were launched in 1893, lasting until 1898. After that, the collections in the former building (Galleries of Comparative Anatomy, founded by Cuvier in 1802, and Gallery of Anthropology, founded by Quatrefages in 1855) were transferred to the new building, which was inaugurated on July the 21st, 1898. Even in the present day, the collections derive from the great expeditions of the traveller-naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries as well as from the "ménagerie du Jardin des plantes" (one of the oldest zoos in the world).