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

堪萨斯大学（KU）生物多样性研究所拥有世界级的系统研究藏品，是世界上领先的大学博物馆之一。堪萨斯大学在古生物学研究和收藏管理方面有着悠久的历史，可以追溯到19世纪后期。古生物学收藏品是研究过去生物多样性和追踪生物群体的进化和关系的宝贵资源。这些标本是过去生命的不可替代的记录，在标本无法进入的情况下，它们的适当维护尤其重要，因为它们含有进化上重要的生物，或者是地球历史的独特记录。该项目将为一个压实机储存系统提供资金，用于储存目前不合适且无法进入的化石植物标本。堪萨斯大学古植物学部门在利用馆藏标本的推广项目方面有着悠久而成功的历史。本项目将从事的活动包括：招募/保留少数民族和女性研究生/本科生和博士后学者；为中学女生举办讲习班，利用女性榜样和实践科学活动；以学科为基础（古植物学、环境变化、南极洲）为不同团体举办的研讨会（为堪萨斯城的市中心学生、在家上学的学生、托皮卡大学的天才学生开设的TRIO项目）；参与自然历史博物馆公众教育项目（化石鉴定日、达尔文日）；收集旅游;公共讲座;博物馆内的永久及临时展览；向学生和公众教授古植物学技术。该项目将包括一名博物馆研究专业的学生，他将根据新发现的化石开发一个虚拟展览。古植物学的收藏远远超过了霍沃斯大厅目前的空间（生物实验室，办公室），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。古植物学部收藏了10万多个标本。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、分子系统发育以及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，以及来自俄亥俄大学（OU）的孤儿藏品，这些藏品于2012年被转移到堪萨斯大学。后者包括来自阿巴拉契亚和中大陆的古生代植物，以及苏格兰的牛津路湾。与堪萨斯大学已有的藏品一起，这次收购形成了种子植物历史的无与伦比的资源，从最早的公认化石到现代群体的进化。俄勒冈州立大学的藏品还包括来自冈瓦纳冰川时期北美社区的稀有、季节性干旱（“高地”）植物群；其中一些网站已不再可供收集。需要适当储存的南极化石代表了古生代-中生代植物和真菌在二叠纪末灭绝之前和之后的独特的解剖学详细记录，这是地球历史上最大的灭绝。侏罗纪植物代表了南极洲大陆上唯一的侏罗纪植物沉积，是冈瓦纳大陆分裂时期植物多样性和古气候的重要记录。项目结果将与iDigBio （idigbio.org）共享，并在网上提供（biodiversity.ku.edu/paleobotany）。

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).