COLLECTION SURVEYS FOR LARGE PALEONTOLOGY COLLECTIONS

Digital Access to large paleontology collection is lacking at many universities and museums. The large size of these collections and lack of staff may push the goal of digital access for researchers well into the future. However, relatively simple collection surveys published online can allow interested researchers to become familiar with basic information on the size, scope, and quality of these collections.

For example, the Field Museum of Natural History's invertebrate paleontology collection is estimated at over 2.2 million specimens and is ranked third in the nation by size but, no specimens or catalog data is available online. This collection is housed in 546 cabinets each with 25 drawers. Surveys are being conducted on this collection that will provide counts on the total number of specimen lots, free space, and a drawer-by-drawer assessment of the condition or grade level of the collection. Results listed in the table below were conducted in a drawer-by-drawer survey of all 546 cabinets, a total of over 13,000 drawers. This survey provides data on the geologic periods and phylum represented in the collection and free space available.

	sponges and misc	corals	bryozoans	brachiopods	mollusks	annelids	arthropods	echinoderms	graptolites	trace fossils	Bulk	Free space	Total
Precambrian	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
Cambrian	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%	1.9%
Ordovician	0.2%	0.4%	1.1%	1.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	1.6%	3.8%	11.1%
Silurian	0.5%	1.7%	0.4%	2.0%	1.4%	0.3%	0.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	1.2%	2.4%	12.0%
Devonian	1.0%	7.1%	0.7%	4.1%	2.7%	0.2%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	1.7%	4.2%	23.1%
Mississippian	0.0%	0.6%	0.9%	2.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.2%	3.9%	0.0%	0.0%	3.2%	2.5%	14.8%
Mazon creek	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	2.0%	0.8%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.6%	0.3%	2.7%	9.6%
Pennsylvanian	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.4%	3.5%
Permian	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.6%
Triassic	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
Jurassic	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	1.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%	3.1%
Cretaceous	1.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	2.3%	7.0%
Cenozoic	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	4.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%	1.5%	7.4%
Types	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.5%	1.1%	0.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	1.0%	5.5%
Totals	5.0%	11.5%	3.6%	10.9%	18.8%	1.8%	7.1%	7.2%	0.8%	1.1%	10.3%	21.9%	100.0%