Collaborative Research: Curating, digitizing and disseminating results from an unparalleled collection of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

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The goals of this project are to conserve one of the most scientifically significant collections of fossil vertebrate animals from the southern hemisphere, to make it more broadly accessible to researchers worldwide, and to enhance its already high value for education and public outreach. The collection, currently housed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, was recovered over the last three decades from Upper Cretaceous (approximately 67 million years old) strata of Madagascar through collaboration among several American and Malagasy institutions. The collection includes about 25,000 specimens of fishes, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals. So far, 21 new species have been described, most of them represented by skeletons that are the most complete and best preserved for entire large groups of vertebrate animals. These specimens have provided fundamental insights into an important interval of evolutionary history and have been used to test hypotheses about how and when the southern hemisphere broke apart into the landmasses we know today. Specimens from the collection have been on display in 36 museums in North America, Europe, Asia, and Madagascar, reported in countless media outlets, and used as a fruitful training ground for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as lifelong-learning museum volunteers. The specimens in this important collection will be prepared, rehoused, cataloged, and digitized to modern standards so that the Late Cretaceous vertebrate fossil record of Madagascar can continue to be documented and conserved in perpetuity. This will include final preparation of all specimens out of their entombing rock matrix and construction of archival support structures for the largest specimens. By formal agreement with government and university partners in Madagascar, one-half of the remaining specimens must be returned to Madagascar upon completion of study. As such, exact replicas (casts and 3D prints) will be made for important specimens slated for permanent return to Madagascar; digital datasets will be made available via the NSF-supported repository MorphoSource for current and future researchers and educators. Ultimately, all specimen records will be exported to the NSF-funded data aggregator Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) in order to be made available to other researchers. This project, and continued research on specimens made accessible through this award, will further expand educational and public engagement efforts.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.