Paleonet: Number of fossils in US museum collections

[Warren Douglas Allmon]

The most recent assessments of which I am aware are the following:

U.S. paleo collections = ca 66 million specimens (Allmon, W.D., and R.D. White, 2000, Introduction. In Guidelines for the management and curation of invertebrate fossil collections. R.D. White and W.D. Allmon, eds., Paleontological Society Special Publications, vol. 10, pp. 1-4.)
Global paleontology collections = at least 275 million specimens. (Allmon, W.D., 1997, Collections in paleontology. In Paleontology in the 21st Century Workshop. H.R. Lane, J. Lipps, F.F. Steininger, and W. Ziegler, eds., Kleine Senckenbergreihe, No. 25, pp. 155-159.)

-----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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