Invertebrate Paleontology Improvements and Integration of Orphaned Collections: Florida Museum of Natural History

佛罗里达自然历史博物馆是一个活跃的古生物研究和化石收藏保存中心。在道格拉斯·S·琼斯博士的管理下，无脊椎动物化石收藏重新引起了人们的兴趣和重大支持。这个化石收藏现在是美国增长最快的无脊椎动物化石储存库之一，不久将成为美国东南部和加勒比海新生代海洋无脊椎动物的首选储存库。琼斯博士建议将藏品转移到高密度存储单元，并加快对藏品进行整理、编目和计算机化的工作。拟议的策展改进项目将为研究界带来广泛的好处。研究人员将在访问盖恩斯维尔期间更好地获取藏品，并通过更有效的借用标本计划。计算机数据库本身将是一种研究资源，使研究人员能够探索化石在时间和空间上的分布模式。像这样的自然历史收藏是地球上生命进化的主要文献。研究界从他们的适当管理中实现了重要的红利。

The Florida Museum of Natural History is an active center for paleontological research and preservation of fossil collections. Under the stewardship of Dr. Douglas S. Jones, the invertebrate fossil collections have been the subject of renewed interest and significant support. This fossil collection now represents one of the fastest-growing repositories of invertebrate fossils in the country, and will soon become the premiere repository for marine invertebrates of Cenozoic age from the southeast U.S. and the Caribbean Ocean. Dr. Jones proposes transfer of the collection to high-density storage units, and acceleration of the efforts to arrange, catalog, and computerize the collection's holdings. The proposed curatorial improvement project will have wide- ranging benefits for the research community. Researchers will have improved access to the collections during their visits to Gainesville, and through a more effective program of borrowing specimens. The computer database will be a research resource in its own right, allowing investigators to explore patterns of fossil distribution through time and space. Natural history collections such as this are the primary documents of the evolution of life on earth. The research community realizes important dividends from their proper curation.