Invertebrate Paleontology Improvements and Integration of Orphaned Collections: Florida Museum of Natural History

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The Florida Museum of Natural History is an active center for paleontological research and preservation of fossil collections. Under the stewardship of Dr. Douglas S. Jones, the invertebrate fossil collections have been the subject of renewed interest and significant support. This fossil collection now represents one of the fastest-growing repositories of invertebrate fossils in the country, and will soon become the premiere repository for marine invertebrates of Cenozoic age from the southeast U.S. and the Caribbean Ocean. Dr. Jones proposes transfer of the collection to high-density storage units, and acceleration of the efforts to arrange, catalog, and computerize the collection's holdings. The proposed curatorial improvement project will have wide- ranging benefits for the research community. Researchers will have improved access to the collections during their visits to Gainesville, and through a more effective program of borrowing specimens. The computer database will be a research resource in its own right, allowing investigators to explore patterns of fossil distribution through time and space. Natural history collections such as this are the primary documents of the evolution of life on earth. The research community realizes important dividends from their proper curation.