UNKNOWN TO UNLOCKED: THE CHALLENGES OF CURATING A COLLECTION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FORTY YEARS

How do we organize fossils that have been untouched for decades? As is the case with many such open-ended questions, it’s hard to have a concrete answer, but there are ways to gain insight and strategy on best ways forward.

The Nacional de Historia Natural “Prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is a well-suited location to conduct a case study in reorganizing and assessing part a historical invertebrate paleontology collection. While the vertebrate material of the collection is well-organized and possesses an adequate environment, the invertebrate collection has remained untouched for forty years. As such, challenges arose with figuring out a strategy to get the material organized and arranged for use at the museum.

Over the course of a week and a half, my colleagues and I were able to organize 1,033 specimen lots consisting of ~4000 individuals, families, 95 genera, and 295 species. Some of these identifications may need updating taxonomically, but the specimens are nonetheless reflective of the diversity within the collection. The majority of these specimens were collected in the northwestern part of the Dominican Republic by the founder of the National Museum: Dr. Marcano Fondeur.

While this initial curation effort yielded excellent results, work still remains to bring this collection to a more useable format. This includes continued curation of specimens, development of a locality system, refined storage settings for specimens, and updating of taxonomic identifications. Although daunting, ensuring this historic and valuable resource is accessible for researchers in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere is a goal worth undertaking.