WASHINGTON (AP) - A paleontology expert who led a major excavation for ice age fossils of mammoths and mastodons in Colorado is being named the next director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

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The Smithsonian named Kirk Johnson, chief curator and vice president of research at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, to the post Thursday. He takes over one of the nation's most visited museums in late October. Johnson joined the Denver museum in 1991.

It draws about 1.4 million visitors a year. In 2010 and 2011, Johnson led an excavation near Snowmass Village, Colo., that uncovered thousands of bones of prehistoric life.

The Smithsonian plans to build a new dinosaur hall on the National Mall. Johnson follows Cristian Samper, who led the museum since 2003.