CSBR: Ownership Transfer: Transfer of Orphaned Kettleman Hills Collection from San Francisco State University to the University of California Museum of Paleontology

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Paleontology collections represent a rare, irreplaceable resource for understanding Earth history. The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) has one of the largest and most actively used fossil collections in the country. This project secures a unique and endangered collection of two to five million year old marine invertebrate and rare marine and land vertebrate fossils by transferring them from San Francisco State University (SFSU) to UCMP where the specimens will be curated and digitally cataloged, preserving the data for future generations. Students and faculty at San Francisco State University over the course of 40 years collected these fossils with precise, high quality geographic and geologic information from multiple geologic formations from the Kettleman Hills of Central California. The collection has been virtually unknown to the scientific community and it contains more than 100 genera and 200 species of bivalve and gastropod mollusks, and fewer varieties of echinoids, bryozoans, corals, and brachiopods, with rarer fish, reptiles, and marine and terrestrial mammals. In addition to providing web-accessible digital specimen records, the data and images of fossils from the collection will be incorporated into education modules and virtual field trips posted on UCMP websites and the project will provide important training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The focus of the project is the physical transfer, rehousing, and digital cataloging of a unique, endangered collection of Pliocene-Pleistocene-aged fossils from the Etchegoin, San Joaquin, and Tulare formations in the Kettleman Hills of Central California. The Pliocene-Pleistocene marine fossil record in California records important global environmental and sea level changes and specific drivers operating over the last five million years include climate, glacial-interglacial cycles, and local plate tectonic movements. Fossils of this age and related faunas are the subject of ongoing study by researchers who actively use UCMP collections. The effort will, for the first time, enable researchers to make use of this irreplaceable collection by providing physical access to the fossils and electronic access to the accompanying locality data. Results of the project will be accessible online (www.ucmp.berkeley.edu) and digitized collections data and images will be shared via iDigBio (www.idigbio.org) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.gbif.org).