Digitization PEN: Critical Central and South American additions to the EPICC TCN from the oldest Invertebrate Paleontology collection in the United States

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An award is made to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANSP) to join the Eastern Pacific Invertebrate Communities of the Cenozoic (EPICC) Thematic Collections Network (TCN) as a Partner to Existing Networks (PEN). The EPICC TCN focuses on the digitization of marine invertebrate fossils from the last 66 million years from Eastern Pacific rim localities. These specimens capture a record of several important climatic events in geologic history and can help researchers understand how marine invertebrate species and ecosystems have responded to climatic changes in the past, and how they may respond to similar events in the future. Student interns will be hired through Drexel University's co-op program to assist in all aspects of the digitization process. Co-op students will also engage in research and present the results of their work at either a University, local, or national conference. Collections staff will also work with ANSP's Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) program for high school girls from underserved families in Philadelphia. Two WINS students will intern as part of the ANSP EPICC team, and then will receive a scholarship to attend Drexel?s summer geoscience field camp for high school students as a capstone experience. For this project, ANSP staff will digitize and make available online specimen and locality data for approximately 18,300 EPICC TCN-relevant specimens held in the ANSP Invertebrate Paleontology Department. ANSP collections staff will also photograph and make available online images for 402 EPICC TCN-relevant historic type specimens. This large and historic collection is largely uncatalogued, is not digitized, and is not available online. The specimens digitized through the EPICC TCN will represent the first online presence for the ANSP Invertebrate Paleontology collection, the oldest invertebrate paleontology collection in North America. In addition, this PEN will fill key gaps within the EPICC project, with a particular focus on specimens from Central and South America. The specimen data and the type specimen photographs from this PEN will be made available to researchers and the public through iDigBio (idigbio.org) in accordance with EPICC's policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.