CSBR: Natural History: Securing Paleobotanical Collections at the University of Kansas: Evolution of Seed Plants and Antarctic Fossil Plants

CSBR：自然历史：堪萨斯大学古植物收藏的保护：种子植物和南极化石植物的进化

• 批准号: 1561315
• 负责人: Edith Taylor
• 金额: $ 49.55万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-15 至 2019-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1561315&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CSBR; Natural; History; Securing; Paleobotanical

The University of Kansas (KU) Biodiversity Institute includes world-class systematic research collections and is one of the leading university museums in the world. KU has an extensive history of paleontological research and collection stewardship back to the late 1800s. Paleontological collections represent an invaluable resource for studying past biodiversity and tracing the evolution and relationships of groups of organisms through time. Such collections represent an irreplaceable record of past life and their proper maintenance is especially crucial in cases where collection sites are no longer accessible, where they contain evolutionarily important organisms, or represent a unique record of Earth history. This project will provide funding for a compactor storage system for fossil plant specimens that are currently in unsuitable storage and inaccessible. The KU Paleobotany Division has a long, successful history of outreach programs that use specimens from the collection. Activities that this project will engage in include: recruitment/retention of underrepresented minority and female graduate/undergraduate students and postdoctoral scholars; workshops for middle school girls using female role models and hands-on science activities; subject-based (paleobotany, environmental change, Antarctica) workshops for various groups (TRIO program for inner-city students from Kansas City; home-schooled students; gifted students from Topeka PS); participation in Natural History Museum Public Education programs (fossil identification day, Darwin Day); collection tours; public lectures; permanent and temporary displays in the Museum; and teaching paleobotanical techniques to school children and the public. This project will include a Museum Studies student who will develop a virtual exhibit based on the newly accessible fossils. The paleobotany collections have greatly exceeded current space in Haworth Hall (biology labs, offices) and specimens are scattered in storage areas and the paleobotany research laboratory. Specimens will be moved into newly renovated space on West Campus, where many other Natural History collections are housed. The Paleobotany Division contains more than 100,000 specimens. KU houses the largest collection of Antarctic fossil plants in the world. These fossils provide calibration points for molecular clocks, molecular phylogenies, and extinction and dispersal events. The current project includes Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic fossil plants from Antarctica, and orphaned collections from Ohio University (OU), which were moved to KU in 2012. The latter includes Paleozoic plants from Appalachia and the Midcontinent, as well as Oxroad Bay, Scotland. Together with collections already at KU, this acquisition forms an unparalleled resource of the history of seed plants, from the earliest accepted fossils to the evolution of modern groups. The OU collection also includes plants from rare, seasonally dry ("upland") floras from North American communities during glacial times in Gondwana; some of these sites are no longer accessible for collection. The Antarctic fossils that need proper storage represent a unique, anatomically detailed record of Paleozoic - Mesozoic plants and fungi at a time before and after end-Permian extinctions - the largest extinctions in Earth history. The Jurassic plants represent the only substantial deposit of Jurassic plants on continental Antarctica and are an important record of plant diversity and paleoclimate at the time of the breakup of Gondwana. Results of project will be shared with iDigBio (idigbio.org) and made available online (biodiversity.ku.edu/paleobotany).

堪萨斯大学（KU）生物多样性研究所拥有世界一流的系统研究藏品，是世界领先的大学博物馆之一。KU有着悠久的古生物学研究和收藏管理历史，可以追溯到19世纪末。古生物学收藏是研究过去生物多样性和追踪生物群体随时间的演变和关系的宝贵资源。这些收藏品是过去生命的不可替代的记录，在收集地点无法进入、收藏品中含有重要的进化生物或代表地球历史的独特记录的情况下，妥善维护这些收藏品尤为重要。该项目将为一个压实储存系统提供资金，用于目前储存不当和无法进入的植物化石标本。KU古植物学部有着悠久的，成功的推广计划的历史，使用标本的集合。该项目将开展的活动包括：招聘/留住代表性不足的少数民族和女研究生/本科生和博士后学者;利用女性榜样为中学女生举办讲习班和实践科学活动;（古植物学、环境变化、南极洲）讲习班（为来自堪萨斯城的市中心学生、家庭教育学生、来自托皮卡PS的天才学生提供的TRIO项目）;参与自然历史博物馆公共教育项目（化石鉴定日，达尔文日）;收藏图尔斯之旅;公开讲座;博物馆的永久和临时展览;以及向学童和公众教授古植物学技术。这个项目将包括一个博物馆研究的学生谁将开发一个虚拟展览的基础上新访问的化石。古植物学的收藏已经大大超过了霍沃斯大厅（生物实验室，办公室）的现有空间，标本分散在存储区和古植物学研究实验室。标本将被转移到西校区新装修的空间，那里有许多其他自然历史收藏品。古植物学分部包含超过100，000个标本。KU拥有世界上最大的南极化石植物收藏。这些化石为分子钟、分子生物学、灭绝和扩散事件提供了校准点。目前的项目包括来自南极洲的二叠纪，三叠纪和侏罗纪化石植物，以及俄亥俄州大学（俄亥俄州）的孤儿收藏品，这些收藏品于2012年转移到KU。后者包括来自阿巴拉契亚和中部大陆的古生代植物，以及苏格兰的奥克斯罗德湾。连同已经在KU的收藏品，这次收购形成了种子植物历史的无与伦比的资源，从最早接受的化石到现代群体的进化。这些植物还包括来自冈瓦纳古陆冰川时期北美社区的稀有、季节性干旱（“高地”）植物群的植物;其中一些地点不再可供收集。需要妥善储存的南极化石代表了地球历史上最大的二叠纪末灭绝前后古生代-中生代植物和真菌的独特解剖学详细记录。侏罗纪植物是南极大陆上唯一的侏罗纪植物实体存款，是冈瓦纳大陆解体时植物多样性和古气候的重要记录。项目成果将与iDigBio（idigbio.org）分享，并在网上提供（biodiversity.ku.edu/paleobotany）。