Restoration of Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Vertebrate Paleontology Collection, Phase II

俄克拉荷马州自然历史博物馆的脊椎动物古生物藏品包括3万多件标本，主要来自美国南部平原。该藏品是重要的地区性脊椎动物化石储藏库，在美国同类藏品中排名第15。大部分藏品是在20世纪30年代和40年代在博物馆第一馆长J·威利斯·斯托瓦尔的指导下收藏的。1953年他去世后，这些藏品被忽视，年久失修，但在1986年被任命为馆长的理查德·奇费利博士的努力下，收藏品恢复了高度活跃。大约四分之一的藏品已被修复、编目、重新整理并转移到现代储藏柜。Cifelli博士提出了藏品修复的另一个阶段，在此期间，新生代化石(主要是哺乳动物)也将被置于高水平的管理之下。拟议的收藏品改进项目将挽救一项重要的研究收藏品，并将使来访的调查人员和通过贷款更容易获得它。像这样的自然历史收藏是研究进化论、生物地理学和全球变化的重要资源。这些藏品的持续增长和完善将使许多代研究人员受益。

The Vertebrate Paleontology collection of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History includes more that 30,000 specimens, collected primarily from the southern plains of the U.S. The collection is an important regional repository for fossil vertebrates, and ranks 15th among U.S. collections of its type. Most of the collection was amassed during the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of J. Willis Stovall, first Director of the Museum. Following his death in 1953 the collection was neglected and fell into disrepair, but through the efforts of Dr. Richard Cifelli, appointed as Curator in 1986, the collection has been restored to a high level of activity. Approximately one-fourth of the collection has been restored, cataloged, reorganized, and transferred to modern storage cabinets. Dr. Cifelli proposes another phase in the collection's restoration, during which fossils of Cenozoic age (mostly mammals) will also be brought to a high level of curation. The proposed collection improvement project will salvage an important research collection, and will make it easily accessible to visiting investigators and through loans. Natural history collections such as this are essential resources for research on evolution, biogeography, and global change. Continued growth and improvement of these collections will benefit many generations of researchers.