Curation of the Florida Museum of Natural History Paleobotanical Collection

9631371迪尔彻佛罗里达自然历史博物馆收藏了100,000多种植物化石。这个集合最初是由PI、David Dilcher和他的学生和同事组织的。它是通过从田纳西州西部和肯塔基州的始新世植物产区、印第安纳州的煤矿以及堪萨斯州和内布拉斯加州的白垩纪粘土中定期收集来补充的。他对西部各州始新世和古新世植物化石的研究做出了重大贡献。除了其集中区外，该藏品现在还包括来自世界各地和美国许多地点的植物化石。这个收藏已经成为世界上的主要资源，来自美国和其他国家的研究化石植物的人经常来参观。目前，没有集合管理器，集合的组织也不是很好。这个项目是一个为期三年的项目，旨在资助一个收藏经理的职位，并提供一些学生帮助分类和组织标本。当这一收集得到适当的策划后，它将成为科学界可获得和有用的国家资源。佛罗里达大学正在与NSF合作，在拨款到期后保留收藏经理作为永久职位，以支持这一收藏。

9631371 Dilcher A collection of over 100,000 fossil plants is housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History. This collection was originally organized by the PI, David Dilcher, and his students and colleagues. It was added to by regular collections made from the Eocene plant-bearing areas in western Tennessee and Kentucky, the coal mines in Indiana and Cretaceous clays in Kansas and Nebraska. Major contributions were made by co-PI Steven Manchester for his research on the Eocene and Paleocene fossil plants from western states. In addition to its areas of concentration, the collection now includes fossil plants from all over the world and many sites in the USA. This collection has become a major resource in the world and is visited regularly by people studying fossil plants from USA and other countries. Currently, there is no collection manager, and the collection is not well organized. This project is a three year program to fund a Collection Manager position and provide some student assistance to catalogue and organize the specimens. When this collection is properly curated, it will be a national resource accessible and useful to the scientific community. The University of Florida is partnering with NSF to support this collection by maintaining the Collection Manager as a permanent position after the expiration of the grant.