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

该项目的目标是保护南半球最具科学意义的脊椎动物化石收藏之一，使其更广泛地供全世界的研究人员使用，并提高其已经很高的教育和公众宣传价值。这些藏品目前存放在丹佛自然科学博物馆，是在过去三十年里，通过几个美国和马达加斯加机构的合作，从马达加斯加的上白垩纪（大约6700万年）地层中发现的。藏品包括大约25,000个鱼类、青蛙、海龟、蜥蜴、蛇、鳄鱼、恐龙、鸟类和哺乳动物的标本。到目前为止，已经发现了21个新物种，其中大多数都是脊椎动物整个大群体中保存最完整、保存最完好的骨骼。这些标本提供了对进化史上一个重要时期的基本见解，并被用来检验关于南半球是如何以及何时分裂成我们今天所知道的大陆的假设。这些标本在北美、欧洲、亚洲和马达加斯加的36家博物馆展出，被无数媒体报道，并被用作高中生、本科生和研究生以及终身学习的博物馆志愿者的富有成效的培训基地。这些重要藏品中的标本将按照现代标准进行准备、重新安置、编目和数字化，以便马达加斯加晚白垩纪脊椎动物化石记录可以继续被记录和永久保存。这将包括从埋藏岩石基质中提取所有标本的最后准备工作，以及为最大的标本建造档案支撑结构。根据与马达加斯加政府和大学合作伙伴的正式协议，在完成研究后，必须将剩余标本的一半归还马达加斯加。因此，精确的复制品（铸造和3D打印）将为重要的标本预定永久返回马达加斯加；数字数据集将通过nsf支持的存储库MorphoSource提供给当前和未来的研究人员和教育工作者。最终，所有标本记录将被导出到美国国家科学基金会资助的数据聚合器集成数字化生物收集（iDigBio），以便其他研究人员可以使用。这个项目，以及对通过该奖项获得的标本的持续研究，将进一步扩大教育和公众参与的努力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.