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)生物多样性研究所包括世界级的系统研究藏品，是世界领先的大学博物馆之一。Ku在古生物研究和收藏管理方面有着广泛的历史，可以追溯到19世纪末。古生物收藏对于研究过去的生物多样性和追踪生物群随时间的进化和关系是一种宝贵的资源。这类收藏品是对过去生命不可替代的记录，在无法再进入收集点、它们包含具有进化意义的重要生物或代表地球历史的独特记录的情况下，它们的适当维护尤为关键。该项目将为目前不适合储存和无法获取的植物化石标本的压实机储存系统提供资金。科罗拉多州立大学古植物学分部有一段很长的、成功的外展项目的历史，这些项目使用的标本来自收藏。该项目将开展的活动包括：招募/保留未被充分代表的少数民族和女性研究生/本科生和博士后学者；利用女性榜样和实践科学活动为中学女孩举办讲习班；为不同群体举办以专题为基础的(古植物学、环境变化、南极洲)讲习班(针对堪萨斯城市中心学生的三人计划；在家接受教育的学生；来自托皮卡PS的天才学生)；参加自然历史博物馆的公共教育计划(化石鉴定日，达尔文日)；收藏之旅；公共讲座；博物馆的永久和临时展览；向学童和公众教授古植物学技术。这个项目将包括一名博物馆研究专业的学生，他将根据新获得的化石开发一个虚拟展览。古植物学收藏已经大大超过了哈沃斯大厅(生物实验室、办公室)目前的空间，标本散落在储藏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，那里收藏了许多其他自然历史藏品。古植物学部门拥有超过10万个标本。Ku拥有世界上最大的南极植物化石收藏。这些化石为分子时钟、分子系统发育以及灭绝和扩散事件提供了校准点。目前的项目包括南极洲的二叠纪、三叠纪和侏罗纪化石植物，以及俄亥俄大学(OU)的孤儿收藏品，这些收藏品于2012年被转移到科罗拉多州大学。后者包括来自阿巴拉契亚和中大陆以及苏格兰牛津湾的古生代植物。与KU已有的藏品一起，此次收购形成了种子植物历史的无与伦比的资源，从最早的被接受的化石到现代群体的进化。OU收藏品还包括来自冈瓦那冰川时期北美社区稀有的季节性干燥(“旱地”)植物群的植物；其中一些地点不再可供收集。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期灭绝之前和之后的独特、解剖学上的详细记录-地球历史上最大的灭绝。侏罗纪植物是南极大陆上唯一大量的侏罗纪植物，是冈瓦那分裂时植物多样性和古气候的重要记录。项目成果将与iDigBio(idigBio.org)共享，并在网上提供(Biodisdisity.ku edu/pareobotology)。

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).