Since its inception in 1879, the USGS has collected and preserved geoscience data and sample collections, which include millions of paleobiological specimens stored in USGS facilities and at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C. As one of the largest paleontological collections in the world, the USGS paleontology collection is invaluable, as many specimens may no longer be collected due to high field collection costs or inaccessibility to sampling sites, which have been restricted, urbanized, or modified via landscape processes. The USGS Denver Paleontology Collection includes ~1.2 million specimens stored in 1000 Smithsonian museum cases. The primary collections stored in the Denver [...]
Summary
Since its inception in 1879, the USGS has collected and preserved geoscience data and sample collections, which include millions of paleobiological specimens stored in USGS facilities and at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C. As one of the largest paleontological collections in the world, the USGS paleontology collection is invaluable, as many specimens may no longer be collected due to high field collection costs or inaccessibility to sampling sites, which have been restricted, urbanized, or modified via landscape processes. The USGS Denver Paleontology Collection includes ~1.2 million specimens stored in 1000 Smithsonian museum cases. The primary collections stored in the Denver repository include: Paleozoic trilobites, graptolites, fusulinids, and brachiopods; Mesozoic ammonites, inoceramids, and vertebrates; and Cenozoic non-marine molluscs and vertebrates. The specimens represent life throughout the Phanerozoic and have served to determine and delineate temporal and spatial events in geologic maps, stratigraphy and ecology interpretations, climate change, faunal diversity, and extinction events. In addition to the 1.2 million fossils, the Denver collection includes a vast amount of metadata recorded in locality and taxonomic cards, ledgers, supplementary identification reports, field notes, and maps. Specimens in the USGS Paleontology Collection were collected from 1879 to 1995, by hundreds of researchers and field technicians working for various USGS projects focused on geologic mapping and interpretation, energy and mineral development, water resources, and other research topics. Collection of the specimens followed standardized protocols for data recording and reporting. However, the collection was not amalgamated into a single database. Presently, the USGS is partnering with the NMNH to inventory and standardize processes to preserve, digitize, and provide access to the USGS collections stored in USGS and NMNH facilities. The USGS and NMNH are working to convert analog data into digital data by coupling the information derived from inventory, georeferenced fossil localities, field reports, notebooks, and maps in an online database. As of March 2020, the entire paleontology collection is relocated to the Smithsonian paleobiology department.
Access to the USGS Denver Paleontology collection may be requested by contacting the Collection Curator, Kevin (Casey) McKinney, kcmckinney@usgs.gov, 303-236-7561.
