Paleontology center to display new equipment

The paleontology center at the University of Montana is hosting an open house Friday at noon, showcasing new equipment purchased with a research grant and calling for volunteers to help update its database.

The bioresearch collections grant given in December by the National Science Foundation awards universities and museums money to update valuable research collections. 

“It was enough to get a very high-end compact system,” said Kelly Moore, collections manager of the paleontology center.

The specially-designed compact system, which is in the Charles H. Clapp Building, can store 192 cases of categorized fossils, stacked on shelving units that slide along tracks and compact on either side of the room, creating a single corridor to access the cases.

Available fossil storage space increased by 30 percent and total room space used decreased by 40 percent when compared to the old storage system, Moore said.

“This place was like a maze,” she said. “It wasn’t very efficient.”

Moore said the center stores about 100,000 specimens—plants as well as vertebrates and invertebrates—from all over the world. But a large part of the collection is native to Montana.

“We really like to show off our Montana stuff,” Moore said.

Since winning the grant, the paleontology center has updated its fossil database, which can be accessed on the center’s Web site.

Moore said only 30 percent of the fossils have been updated into the new system. She encourages students and non-students to help inventory, archive and update the database.

“We want people to come and work on these things,” Moore said.

The festivities kick off at noon Friday near the tyrannosaurus rex exhibit in the Clapp Building.

Moore said one of the goals of the center is to promote interest in paleosciences. She said the specimens are working research pieces, not just old fossils in a dusty basement.

“We’re a research museum,” said George Stanley, director of the paleontology center. “The main emphasis is the research.”

jeff.osteen@umontana.edu