Collections Improvement for Paleobotany at the Denver Museum of Natural History

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The paleobotanical collection at the Denver Museum of Natural History (DMNH) is an important national and regional resource for research on the nature of vegetation and climate in the Western Interior of North America. There are approximately 26,000 specimens in the collection including four type specimens and a number of significant assemblages from the Late Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene. Highlights include superb collections from Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sections in North America and New Zealand. Most of the collection (89%) has been amassed since 1991 and, as such, is associated with precise and reliable locality and stratigraphic data. This collection represents the fourth largest collection of Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary plant fossils form the Western Interior, and the only such collection located in the Western Interior. Since 1991, the Department of Earth Sciences (DES) at DMNH has had a commitment to the acquisition, storage, and study of paleobotanical specimens. In 1991, a full-time courator was hired and since then the Museum has supported research, fieldwork, collections management, and collections storage. In the past four years, nearly 24,000 specimens have been added to the collection, and nearly 3,000 specimens have been catalogued and housed in steel cabinets. In addition to Paleobotany Curator, the Department has a Vertebrate Paleontology Curator, a Collections Manager, two Preparators, and a Registrar who are devoted to work on the paleobotanical and vertebrate fossil collections. Although recent DMNH support has improved the condition of the collection considerably, approximately 78 percent of the collection remains housed in cardboard boxes, and all of the collection is stored in an inadequate space behind exhibit dioramas. The collection is presently at risk form water damage and access-related handling problems. In 1993, DES received a grant form the NSF to improve its collection of vertebrate fossils. This grant is nearing completion and most of the vertebrate fossils will soon be archivally stored and accessible. Rearrangement of DES storage space due to the installation of vertebrate fossil compactors and the acquisition of new space presents an opportunity to build an adjacent compactor unit for fossil plants. This project will assist in housing the paleobotanical collection in steel cabinets in a compactor system. The goal of this effort is to preserve the collection so that it is available for research and to allow for continued growth of the collection. Primary needs are for steel cabinets and drawers, a compactor system, and additional personnel to label and move the specimens.