Paleonet: Number of fossils in US museum collections

[Carl Mehling]

Wow... This would be a VERY tricky number to come up with. Basically, you'd first need to decide what is meant by a "fossil specimen." Is a box of 10,000 forams a "fossil specimen?" Is a bone bed? Is each bone of a skeleton? Each track in a trackway?

But even if you could easily decide that, you'd find another issue. Any solid numbers a collection could provide would be the total number of catalogued specimens. Most collections have many uncatalogued as well.

If "fossil specimen" means "fossil remains of a single organism, the number would have to be in the 100s of millions.

Carl Mehling
Fossil Amphibian, Reptile, and Bird Collections
Division of Paleontology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024
cosm at amnh.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Paleonet [mailto:paleonet-bounces at nhm.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Hulbert,Richard C,JR
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 9:26 AM
To: PaleoNet at nhm.ac.uk
Subject: Paleonet: Number of fossils in US museum collections

I have been asked by  a neontological colleague involved in "big data" initiatives and grant funding for an estimate of the total number of all fossil specimens contained in US museum collections (including uncurated specimens). If you know of a citable reference for such an estimate, please either send directly to me <rhulbert at flmnh.ufl.edu> or share with the group.

Thanks,

Richard

Dr. Richard C. Hulbert Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager Florida Museum of Natural History Dickinson Hall, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-7800 USA


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