Support for Care and Use of the Systematic Collection of Mazon Creek Fossil Animals and Plants

伊利诺斯州东北部的Mazon Creek地区出产了自晚古生代以来已知的最重要的软体无脊椎动物和植物生物群之一。该地区中部的陆生、淡水和海洋生物种类丰富。菲尔德自然历史博物馆收藏了马孙溪最大、最重要的化石，但它的94,000个标本中，几乎有一半还没有完全提供给科学界。该项目将提供设备和临时人员支持，以协助博物馆(1)减少积压的43,000件未分类、未剔除和未编目的标本；(2)重新安排Mazon Creek馆藏，以容纳新分类的材料；(3)利用计算机化的馆藏管理技术对整个Mazon Creek馆藏进行编目；(4)出版Mazon Creek地区的类型、图形和参考标本目录。该项目的完成将促进更有效的收藏管理，提高对菲尔德博物馆广泛馆藏的认识，并形成一个独特的研究质量标本收藏，这些标本将更容易获得，对未来的研究更有用。

The Mazon Creek area of northeastern Illinois yields one of the most important soft-bodied invertebrate and plant biotas known from the Late Paleozoic. Middle Pennsylvanian terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms from this region are both diverse and abundant. The Field Museum of Natural History houses the largest and most significant collection of fossils from Mazon Creek, but almost half of its 94,000 specimens are not yet fully available to the scientific community. This project will provide support for equipment and temporary personnel to assist the Museum in (1) reducing a backlog of 43,000 unsorted, unculled and uncatalogued specimens; (2) rearranging the Mazon Creek holdings to accommodate the newly sorted material; (3) cataloging the entire Mazon Creek collection using computerized collection management techniques; and (4) publishing a catalogue of type, figured and referred specimens from the Mazon Creek area. Completion of the project will facilitate more efficient collection management, enhance awareness of the extensive Field Museum holdings, and result in a unique collection of research-quality specimens that will be more accessible and significantly more useful for future research.