Support for Paleobotanical Collection at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center

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9712340 Taylor The objective of this project is to curate, compactorize and computerize the large and important collection of fossil plants that became part of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center (KUNHM) in 1995. The collection has previously lacked both adequate space and curatorial support, as specimen data will be entered into a computer database at the same time that the specimens are curated. The collection consists of approximately 200,000 specimens, including ancillary material, and contains fossils of all plant groups from unicellular algae to flowering plants, ranging in age from Precambrian to Pleistocene. The largest and most important part of this collection consists of Permian and Triassic plants from Antarctica, including several thousand silica permineralizations (in which internal anatomy is preserved), the rarest form plant fossil preservation. This is the largest colletion of permineralized Antarctic plants in the world and includes a variety of permineralized wood with preserved growth rings, which can be used to reconstruct high-latitude paleoclimates during these time periods. The collection will be organized stratigraphically, curated, computerized, and become accessible to other scholars in the field. Since it will be databased, scholars will be able to search the collection either stratigraphically or systematically.