FLMNH Vertebrate Fossil Collections
The Florida Museum maintains five separate fossil vertebrate collections. Their specimens derive mainly from the Cenozoic Era (last 65 million years), with more than 80% coming from about 1000 localities in Florida. Other major contributing regions are islands in the Caribbean Basin, Central and South America, and intermontaine basins of Wyoming and Montana. Combined, the collections total about 750,000 specimens, of which more than 435,000 are catalogued and on a searchable computer database. Holotypes number about 225 specimens.
The primary and largest of our collections consists of specimens recovered by Florida Museum of Natural History staff, graduate students, and volunteers and those donated to the museum. This collection is referred to as the UF collection. The other vertebrate fossil collections are the former collection of the Florida Geological Survey, portions of the Timberlane Research Organization collection, and the UF Department of Zoology Fossil Bird Collection (assembled by the late Professor Pierce Brodkorb). Each of these collections is maintained in a separate catalog, under the acronyms UF/FGS, UF/TRO, and UF/PB, respectively. The fifth collection (UF/IGM) is maintained for specimens collected in Colombia by joint expeditions of personnel from the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Geologico-Mineras (Bogota, Colombia), and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Following their preparation, casting, study, and publication, the original fossils will be housed in Bogota and casts will be stored in Gainesville.
The FLMNH collections provide the most complete basis available for study of Cenozoic vertebrate life and evolution in the eastern United States and the circum-Caribbean Basin area.
NEW VP GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP AVAILABLE BEGINNING FALL 2012
Vertebrate Paleontology Curator Bruce MacFadden has secured funding for multiple years of support through the National Science Foundation for a graduate student at the Masters or Ph.D. level. For more information, download this pdf file.
Information about Annual Spring 2012 Fossil Dig with at Thomas Farm--click here to download information and application form.
Southestern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology Meeting
Clink on above link for a report about this scientific conference held in May, 2011 at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
NEW FOSSIL TURTLE SPECIES NAMED FROM FLORIDA
Dana Ehret and Jason Bourque of the Florida Museum of Natural History proposed a new species of map turtle, genus Graptemys, in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Today map turtles live in the Florida panhandle as far east as the Apalachicola River. All of the fossils come from farther east, and were collected in the Aucilla, Santa Fe, Suwannee, and Waccasassa rivers. Many of the fossils, including the type specimen, a nearly complete skull, were donated to the Florida Musuem of Natural History by Andreas Kerner of High Springs. In recognition of his contributions, the new species was named in his honor, Graptemys kerneri.
The new species dates from the late Pleistocene Epoch. It differs from known species in the genus by having a shorter skull and in other differences in detailed features of both the skull and lower jaws. A copy of the paper in the from of a pdf file can be obtained by contacting the lead author: dehret@monmouth.edu.