{"id":2009,"date":"2019-11-14T18:11:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T18:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/?p=2009"},"modified":"2023-08-08T16:15:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:15:39","slug":"past-lives-find-new-home-at-ui-paleontology-repository","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/2019\/11\/14\/past-lives-find-new-home-at-ui-paleontology-repository\/","title":{"rendered":"Past Lives Find New Home at UI Paleontology Repository"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s amazing, isn\u2019t it, to think that we in the 21st<\/sup> century can pick up a rock from a quarry, a roadside embankment, or perhaps even your own driveway that retains the shape and detail of a creature that has not been seen on the face of the earth for hundreds of millions of years? Fossils are essentially past lives cast in stone that give us a window into life from another time, another world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Robert Wolf of Fort Dodge, Iowa was handed the first fossil that he\u2019d ever seen, a brachiopod<\/a>, by a friend in the 4th<\/sup> grade he surely must have experienced a sense of amazement over the rock that appeared as if it once lived. If so, that sense quickly gave way to fascination, a fascination that led him to a lifetime of fossil collecting, and also led him to author Fossils of Iowa: Field Guide to Paleozoic Deposits<\/a>. Recently he turned over his collection of over 18,000 fossil specimens to the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UI Paleontology Repository<\/a> is an educational and research collection based in Trowbridge Hall on the University of Iowa campus, consisting of over one million fossil specimens collected from around the world that includes both animal and plant species from all geological ages, though the vast majority are Paleozoic marine invertebrates. The collection of fossils in the Repository dates back to 1855 when it was part of what was then known as the UI Cabinet of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the size of the Repository collection, only about 14% of the collection is currently cataloged, which limits access for research purposes. As a result, Tiffany Adrain, who became the Repository Collections Manager in 2003, has worked to secure grant funding to make collection data more accessible through searchable online databases, such as the Paleontology Portal<\/a>, increasing both the profile and value of the holdings<\/a> of the UI collection. Also, by participating in consortial projects, such as iDigBio<\/a>, it will be possible over time to leverage networked specimen data — think \u201cbig data\u201d \u2013to realize the full research potential of the UI\u2019s collection, in conjunction with the collections of other US institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, Robert Wolf kept detailed records on the specimens he collected. Without the detailed documentation that accompanied the specimens he collected, it\u2019s quite likely that the Repository would not have accepted his donation. Without such documentation, a specimen remains a merely interesting or beautiful artifact. For the contextual details of a fossil\u2019s origin are what help scientists make correlations with other data to build a fuller picture of the life of extinct species and the world they lived in long before humans came on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although citizen science<\/a> these days is often associated with crowd sourced contributions for large, centrally coordinated projects, Robert Wolf\u2019s lifelong efforts as a self-taught scientist culminating in a donation to an ongoing collection demonstrates another pathway to citizen science, one no less valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about fossils in Iowa, and paleontology more generally, you can<\/p>\n\n\n\n