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Home / Institutions & Organisations / Palaeobotanical and Palaeontological Collections / Palaeobotany Collections

First of all:
Paleobotany and Palynology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville:
! Links to Other Paleobotanical Collections and Databases.

Cornelia Weber, Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrums für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft): Datenbank Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen in Deutschland (in German). Go to:
! Palaeobotany. Plant fossil collections in German universities.

Pratt Museum of Natural History, Amherst College, Amherst, MA: Paleobotany.

J.M. Anderson and H.M. Anderson (1984): The fossil content of the Upper Triassic Molteno Formation, South Africa. Abstract, Palaeontologia africana, 25. See also here (PDF file).

Paleobotany, Museum of Paleontology, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Go to: Searchable Database of the Paleobotany Collection.

Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Switzerland:
Geowissenschaftliche Sammlungen, Paläontologie, Wirbellose und Pflanzen (in German).
See also: Pflanzensammlungen.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Palaeobotanical Collection collection Rossmann (permineralized wood), Bayreuth, Germany. In German.
See also here (snapshot provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine).

Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California, Berkeley: Paleobotany Collection: Catalogs and Information. The UCMP paleobotany catalog contains information on type specimens of fossil plants, algae, and fungi. It includes over 8,000 specimens cataloged through 1986.
See also here.

Palaeobotanical collection, Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, at the Humboldt University Berlin. The palaeobotanical collections of Cotta, Knappe, Mahr, Rühle von Lilienstern, Schlotheim, Schönlein.

C. Csaki and M. Urlichs (1985): Typen und Originale im Staatlichen Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Paläobotanik: Types and originals in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde ... Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, in PDF (35MB!). See also here.

Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest: Palaeobotanical Collection.

The Canadian Museum of Nature: Palaeobiological Collections. See also:
Earth Sciences Collections. Fossil plants, fossil fungi, fossil pollen.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Museum of Natural History, Chemnitz. Go to: Paläontologische Sammlung. Palaeobotany and petrified wood collection (in German).

The Field Museum, Chicago, IL:
Focus: Fossil Plants. See especially:
! Mesofossils.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland OH. Go to: Paleobotany Collections.

Wladyslaw Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland:
Palaeobotanical Museum.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

R. Crookall (1938): The Kidston Collection of Fossil Plants. With an Account of the Life and Work of Robert Kidston. PDF file, with portrait and publication list. Geological Survey of Great Britain.
Provided by the Inthttp://botany.pl/index.php/en/ernet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

C. Del Rio (2023): Replicability in palaeobotany: Toward a standardization of citation of extant material. In PDF, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 317.
See likewise here.
"... The aim of this guide is to standardise the citations of herbarium specimens, personal collections and living specimens ..."

Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS), Denver, Colorado: DMNS Paleobotany Collection. This website contains over 1000 images of fossil plants spanning the late Cretaceous through early Eocene from the Western Interior of North America. Go to: Advanced Search: Character States.

F. Ditsch and C. Neinhuis (2016): Was Sammlungen können - Verknüpfung unterschiedlicher botanischer Sammlungen in der Lehre. PDF file, in German. About the Palaeobotanical Collection Dresden, Germany.

National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Review of Fossil Collections in Scotland Highlands and Islands. In PDF.
Review of Fossil Collections in Scotland. In PDF.

National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh: L.I. Anderson and M. Taylor (2008): The Geological Curator: Charles W. Peach, Palaeobotany and Scotland (in PDF).
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine. See also:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Charles William Peach (1800-1886).

L.I. Anderson (2005): Hugh Miller: introducing palaeobotany to a wider audience. In PDF, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 241: 63-84. See also here.
About he Hugh Miller collection, held at the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.

The Paleobotanical Collection of the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. See also:
Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alberta Museums, Edmonton, Paleobotanical Collection.

W.A. Friedman (2020): Darwin in the garden: Engaging the public about evolution with museum collections of living objects. Open access, Plants, People, Planet, 2: 294–301.
"... Polls continue to show distressingly high percentages of people around the world do not accept that evolution has occurred.
[...] It is time for botanical gardens and arboreta around the world to commit to leveraging their living collections of museum objects to explain and demonstrate the roles of mutation, variation, and selection in the evolutionary process. In doing so, much could be accomplished to increase scientific literacy at a societal level.

Paleobotany and Palynology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville: Paleobotany Collection Policies.

Martin Gross (1999): Die phytopaläontologische Sammlung Franz UNGER am Landesmuseum Joanneum. PDF file (in German), Joannea Geol. Paläont., 1: 5-26. Abteilung Geologie und Paläontologie, Studienzentrum Naturkunde, Graz, Austria.
See also here.

N. Hauschke and S. Kretschmer (2015): Johann Georg Bornemann (1831-1896) – Symposium auf Sardinien, Bornemann-Sammlung an der Martin-Luther-Universität in Halle (Saale) und 3D-Digitalisierung/ -Visualisierung kambrischer Trilobiten. PDF file in German. Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften, 37: 143-162.
See also here (in PDF).

Norbert Hauschke: Die geologisch-paläontologischen Sammlungen der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (in German). Including plant fossils described by Johann Georg Bornemann, one of the pioneers in cuticular analysis.

M.P.H. Howe (2023): The UK National Geological Repository: a case study in innovation. Free access, Geological Society, London, Special Publications.

August Ilg, Alfred Selmeier and Madelaine Böhme: The fossil wood database (FWDS). Fossil wood from Central Europe, Triassic to the Pleistocene. Specimen chiefly from the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie München, the Naturmuseum Augsburg and the private collection P. Holleis.

Illinois Digital Archives: George Langford Sr., collecting Mazon Creek nodules. In the 1920s and 1930s, George Langford, and his son, George, Jr., spent many hours collecting fossiliferous nodules from strip mines near Braidwood, Illinois.

Institut für Spezielle Botanik der FSU Jena: Paläobotanische Sammlung (Collection Schweitzer). In German.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Paläobotanische Sammlung, Institut für Spezielle Botanik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena (Collection Schweitzer). See especially:
! The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm: Schweitzer Collection.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

National Museums of Kenya. Tour of the Fossil Plants.

E. Kustatscher et al. (2016): The Krasser collection in the Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Prague: New insights into the Middle Jurassic flora of Sardinia. In PDF, Fossil Imprint, 72: 140-154.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Division of Paleobotany, Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence: The Paleobotanical Collections Database. This database has over 77,000 entries, including permineralized and compression/impression specimens, prepared slides, teaching slides, research slides, figured negatives from published papers, and figured and duplicate peels. It housed the largest collection of Antarctic fossil plants in the world with more than 7000 specimens from throughout the Transantarctic Mountains. See also:
The History of Paleobotany at KU, and:
Bradley Kemp, The University of Kansas, Lawrence: Scientists bring expertise and fossil collection to KU.

J.C. Lendemer (2002): Rediscovery of "lost" Triassic fossil plant types: Components of the Wilhelm Bock Collection in The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and in the Yale Peabody Museum. PDF file, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 152: 205-214.
See also here (abstract), and there (Google Books).

! M. Libertín et al. (2022): The early land plant Cooksonia bohemica from the Pridoli, late Silurian, Barrandian area, the Czech Republic, Central Europe. In PDF, Historical Biology, DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2022.2144286.
See also here.
Read about the history of Hans-Joachim Schweitzer's paleobotanical collection in the part: "Material and methods".

F. Löcse and R. Rößler (2022): Paul Geipel’s palaeobotanical collection – one of the largest and most important former private collections of the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz. In PDF, Geologica Saxonica, 68: 11–20.
See also here. "... Our study contributes to the history of European natural science in the early 20^th century by elucidating a Europe-wide network of local collectors like Zacharias, Güldner and Geipel and geologists/palaeobotanists, such as Rudolph, Beck, Nötzold, Sterzel and Wehrli. ..."

! F. Löcse et al. (2021): Paläobotanische Kostbarkeiten aus den Versteinerten Wäldern von Nová Paka (Tschechien) und Chemnitz (Deutschland)&xnbsp;– Originale zu Stenzel (1889, 1906) und Rudolph (1906) in der paläobotanischen Sammlung der Geologischen Bundesanstalt in Wien. PDF file, in German. Jb. Geol. B.-A., 159: 289–313. See also here.
About old findings of Psaronius tree ferns and Medullosa seed ferns: Ankyropteris brongniartii, Asterochlaena laxa, Asterochlaena ramosa.

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid: The Collection of Palaeobotany of the Museum.

Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, VA: Fossil Plant Collections.

Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Palaeobotany Collection.

B. Mohr et al. (2008): Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern and his palaeobotanical collection: an east–west German story. In PDF, Earth Sciences History, 27: 278–296. See also here.

T. Nadim et al. (2015): Reconstructions of a historic paleontological collection: Diversity re-created. In PDF, Earth Sciences History, 27: 278–296. See also here and there.

Fossil plants, Muséum de Nantes. (in French). See also here.

Paleobotany Division, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven: Search the Paleobotany Collection, and History of the Paleobotany Collection.

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Norman, Oklahoma: Paleobotany and Micropaleontology. The Leonard R. Wilson Collection of Micropaleontology and Paleobotany comprises approximately 3800 samples with associated palynological preparations (ca. 50,000 microscope slides), 8000 macrofossil specimens, and comparative modern plant material.

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Connecticut:
Paleobotany. Go to:
! Compendium Index of North American Paleobotany.
The Compendium Index presently covers fossil floras from North America, including Greenland, starting in the Triassic Period and extending to Pleistocene. This is a digitized version of a card-file index of approximately 20,000 images and text of descriptions of fossil plant species, maintained at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History as a classification and identification tool.

W. Jung (1970): Die Gothan´sche Rhät/Lias-Sammlung der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Nürnberg. PDF file, in German. Natur und Mensch, Jahresmitteilungen der naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Nürnberg e.V., 1970: 63-71.

OeTyp-[sic!]Catalogue of Palaeontological Types in Austrian Collections (a project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Commission for the Palaeontological and Stratigraphical Research of Austria) and the Natural History Museum Vienna.
A database showing published palaeontological types, figured specimens and reference material in Austrian collections.

The French Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris:
Palaeobotanay.

Laboratoire de Paléobotanique et de Paléoécologie, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris: Collection de Paléobotanique (in French).

Center for Systematic Biology and Evolution, The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Go to: Fossil Plants.

The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA: Science > Systematics and Evolution > Botany > Paleobotany.
See also: E.E. Spamer and J.C. Lendemer (2000): Type specimens of fossil plants in the Paleobotany Collection, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Revisted catalogue (PDF file).

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA: The paleobotany collection.
Snapshot provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

National Herbarium Pretoria. The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI):
Collections at the National Herbarium, Pretoria (PRE).
Scroll down to: "Palaeobotany Herbarium". This houses a superb collection of fossil plants from over 100 localities in southern Africa. The main emphasis is on the Late Triassic Molteno Flora (200 million years ago).
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

T. Servais et al. (2012): Paleontology in France: 200 years in the footsteps of Cuvier and Lamarck. Palaeontologia Electronica, 15.

! C.H. Shute and C.J. Cleal (1987), starting on PDF page 16: Palaeobotany in museums. In PDF, The geological curator. See also PDF page 19:
"What makes a good research paleobotany collection?"

Richard Stafursky, Lewes, Delaware: A World Species List (WSL), Animals, Plants and Microbes, Established April, 1994; World Species List - Plant Fossils.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm.
! Rhaethian and Jurassic plants of Scania.
The fossil material has been collected by 62 different collectors, and for 44% of the material the collector is known. Four hundred and forty five taxa are recorded, which includes 86 type specimens. Three thousand, two hundred and fifty-four preparations, mainly cuticle slides exist. Two thousand and twenty-three specimens have been published in 63 publications by 19 authors.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm:
! Databases. The electronic registration of the plant collections. "The goal is to provide an efficient way of searching for specimens and working on particular groups of plants or fossil sites". Excellent!
Go to:
Triassic and Jurassic plants of Scania; see especially Specimens by publication.
! Triassic plants of Thale, Germany; see especially Specimen by publication.
! Triassic plants of Lunz, Austria.
Triassic plants of Eastern Australia.
Also worth to visit:
The Schweitzer Collection.

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs: Fossil Plant Collection. The collection represents the full span of geological time for which plant fossils are known and includes most major plant groups.

Kathleen B. Pigg, Arizona State University, Tempe: ASU Fossil Plant Collections.

J.H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert et al. (2004): Catalogue of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic holotypes in the collection of plant fossils in the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden. PDF file, In: NNM Technical Bulletin, 7: 1-27.

Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Museum of Natural History, Vienna: The Palaeobotanical Collection.

! Department of Ultrastructure Research and Palynology, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna: Paldat. The database includes a detailed description of the pollen grain (shape in dry and hydrated condition, apertural details, wall-stratification and ornamentation, pollen coatings and cellular condition), images of each pollen grain (LM, SEM and TEM) and basic literature on each genus.

Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Fossil Plant and Algae, Fossil Plant and Algae Type Register. See also:
A.D. Watt (1970): Catalog of the Illustrated Paleozoic Plant Specimens in the National Museum of Natural History. PDF file, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, 5; 53 pages.

ETH Zürich, Earth Science Collections: Palaeobotany. Image Gallery.

Home / Institutions & Organisations / Palaeobotanical and Palaeontological Collections / Palaeontology Collections (including Palaeobotanical Specimens)

! First of all:

Brent H. Breithaupt, University of Wyoming Laramie:
An Introduction,from Tapping Educational Resources.
See especially: Museums: The Underutilized Resource.

Cornelia Weber, Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrums für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft): Datenbank Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen in Deutschland (in German). Go to:
Palaeontology. Palaeontology collections in German universities.

! Webmuseen.de: Natural History Museums in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (in German).

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, New Mexico, See also:
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Web-based Paleo-database Home Page.

Tony Barnosky, Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkely: Paleontology Database Network. A link directory for promoting communication about electronic databases in palaeontology. See also here.

Pflanzensammlungen, Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Switzerland (in German).

Bavarian Natural History Collections (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, SNSB).

Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California, Berkeley: Paleontology Resources, and Paleontological Collection Catalogs and Related Resources.

N. Boonchai et al. (2009): Paleontological parks and museums and prominent fossil sites in Thailand and their importance in the conservation of fossils. In PDF, Carnets de Géologie.
! Note figure 3 and 4: Petrified trunks with root plates.

! The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN): CHIN is a national centre of excellence that provides a visible face to Canada's heritage through the world of networked information. Search for:
Botany.
Palynology.
Paleontology.

! Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany (situated at the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
Their strategies are improving the visibility and availability of the collections as well as to develop and integrate the collections as decentralised infrastructures for research, teaching and education, with due regard for their diversity and specific local characteristics – on an interdisciplinary and cross-site basis.
Note especially:
! News section (in German), with current notices of events, publications, funding offers and vacancies.
Worth checking out:
! Wissenschaftliche Sammlungen. The portal lists object-based scientific collections.

D.L. Contreras (2018): A workflow and protocol describing the field to digitization process for new project-based fossil leaf collections. Open access, Applications in Plant Sciences, 6: e1025.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, located in Colorado, USA, west of Colorado Springs

The Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Paläobotanik, Geschichte (in German). See also:
History of Botany at Senckenberg. PDF file, by S. Dressler and G.Zizka (2005).

Geoscience Museum, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany.

K.I. Grimm (2018): Die Paläontologische Sammlung am Institut für Geowissenschaften der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität. PDF file, in German. Mainzer naturwiss. Archiv, 55: 97–110.

Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), Hannover, Germany. The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources.
Search for "Sammlungen" (in German).
Wissenschaftliche Originale (in German).
Schriftenverzeichnis über die wissenschaftliche Originale in den Sammlungen BGR/LBEG, Hannover und BGR, Berlin (PDF file, in German.
Recherchemöglichkeiten, vorwiegend Wissenschaftliche Originale (in German). Worth checking out:
Das Sammlungsobjekt des Monats (in German).

! C. Haug et al. (2020): Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding �"Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil.based scientific data": the importance of private collections. Open access, PalZ.

N. Hauschke and D. Mertmann (2016): Ausgewählte Fossilfunde aus den Geologisch-Paläontologischen Sammlungen der Martin-Luther-Universität in Halle (Saale): Deutschland. PDF file, in German. Der Aufschluss, 67.

E.J. Hilton et al. (2021): The Expanding Role of Natural History Collections. Open access, Ichthyology & Herpetology, 109: 379-391.
! "... Collections, and their vitality, depend on both their continued roles in traditionally supported fields (e.g., taxonomy) as well as emerging arenas {...]
a natural history collection that does not continue to grow by adding new specimens ultimately will limit its utility. ..."

J.K. Hinz and I. Werneburg (2019): The historical archive of the Palaeontological Collection Of Tübingen, Germany. Palaeontologia Electronica. See also here (in PDF).

M.P.H. Howe (2023): The UK National Geological Repository: a case study in innovation. Free access, Geological Society, London, Special Publications.

The Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Scotland: Search the Hunterian Museum Geology INCA Database. 12,000 geological specimens searchable from the database online. You can also search the HUG database (mostly uncatalogued material).

! iDigBio. The Integrated Digitized Biocollections, the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) funded by the National Science Foundation. Through ADBC, data and images for millions of biological specimens are being made available in electronic format for the research community. Go to:
! iDigBio Portal: iDigBio serves as the coordinating center for the national digitization effort; fosters partnerships and innovations; facilitates the determination and dissemination of digitization practices and workflows. Worth to check out: Digitization Resources.
! See especially: Search records.

D.M. Jarzen, Florida Museum of Natural History: Paleobotany Collection Policies.

International Palaeontologial Association (I.P.A.): Directory of Fossil Collections of the World. This website provides data from museums, academic institutions and departments, curators, and other collection managers in order to create an indexed, searchable on-line database listing information about fossil collections around the world.

! K.R. Johnson et al. (2023): A global approach for natural history museum collections. In PDF, Science, 379.
See also here.
"... The collections that natural history museums acquired over the past three centuries carry data that cannot be replicated but can be used as baselines for efforts to regenerate ecosystems and revitalize communities. ..."

K.G. Johnson et al. (2011): Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault. In PDF, BioScience, 61: 147-153. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Kenneth G. Johnson (Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London), Harry F. Filkorn, and Mary Stecheson: Paleontology Collections on the World Wide Web: The Missing Link. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 8 (2); October 2005.

W. Jung and E. Knobloch (1972): Die “Sternberg-Originale” der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie zu München. PDF file, in German. Mitt. Bayer. Staatssamml. Paläont. hist. Geol., 12: 105-111.

! W. Jung (1970): Die Gothan'sche Rhät/Lias-Sammlung der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Nürnberg. PDF file, in German. Natur und Mensch, Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Nürnberg e.V.

J. Kovar-Eder (2014): Deutschlands naturkundliche Sammlungen - Ausgangslage und Relevanz der Sammlungen als Forschungsinfrastruktur (in German). PDF file, go to PDF page 10. Mitteilungen und Berichte aus dem Institut für Museumsforschung, 52.

! J. Kvacek et al. (2021): Catalogue of Plant Fossils Described in Works by Kaspar M. Sternberg Second Revised Edition. In PDF, Sternbergiana, 1: 1–309.
"... In summary, the second edition of the Catalogue comprises specimens that are types of 82 genera, 3 subgenera, 535 species and 14 varieties described by Kaspar Maria Count Sternberg and his collaborators: K. B. Presl and A. C. J. Corda. The type material of 32 genera, 233 species and 5 varieties is housed in the National Museum, Prague. The types of 79 species and 4 varieties have been located in other European museums. ..."

Rex Bing Hung Kwok, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales: Palaeontology. Go to: Palaeontological Collections in Museums, and Exhibits of Private Palaeontological Collections.

Leeds Geoblitz Project. A review of the geology collection at Leeds Museum, England, UK. Go to:
The Palaeobotany Review.
"The aim of the review is to establish material that is of scientific merit and specimens which are good representatives, possessing public potential for display and community events. These two criteria do not necessarily go hand in hand; as a specimen may have a fantastic scientific research potential, but may not be visually impressive. Therefore the specimens are graded against two separate criteria: Scientific Merit (as a numerical value of stars) and Public Engagement (as a Gold, Silver or Bronze status)".

B.S. Lieberman and J. Kimmig (2018): Museums, paleontology, and a biodiversity science–based approach. In PDF, The Geological Society of America Special Paper, 535. See also here.
"... it is clearly apparent that research involving fossil museum collections data is undergoing a renaissance, and new digital approaches are making it possible to consider longstanding questions of relevance to evolutionary biology ..."

! F. Löcse et al. (2021): Paläobotanische Kostbarkeiten aus den Versteinerten Wäldern von Nová Paka (Tschechien) und Chemnitz (Deutschland)&xnbsp;– Originale zu Stenzel (1889, 1906) und Rudolph (1906) in der paläobotanischen Sammlung der Geologischen Bundesanstalt in Wien. PDF file, in German. Jb. Geol. B.-A., 159: 289–313. See also here.
About old findings of Psaronius tree ferns and Medullosa seed ferns: Ankyropteris brongniartii, Asterochlaena laxa, Asterochlaena ramosa.

! F. Löcse and R. Rößler (2018): Paul Geipel's palaeobotanical collection–one of the largest and most important former private collections of the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz. PDF file, in German. Veröff. Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, 41: 5-54.
See likewise here.

Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London: The Former British Petroleum Microfossil Collection (in 1991 BP donated to the Natural History Museum London). The database, a record of BP’s exploration activity since the 1950s, hold details of material from over 3,500 individual well runs. The collection includes micropalaeontological assemblage slides and residues; palynological slides and residues and nannofossil slides from wells and outcrop from over 120 countries world-wide.

A.M.G. López (2019): On taphonomy: collages and collections at the Geiseltalmuseum. Free access, BJHS: Themes 4: 195–214.

C.R. Marshall et al. (2018): Quantifying the dark data in museum fossil collections as palaeontology undergoes a second digital revolution. Free access, Biology letters, 14: 20180431.http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.04.
"... the published literature represents only a small proportion of the palaeontological data housed in museum collections
[...] in the early phases of a second digital revolution in palaeontology—the digitization of museum collections—we provide an estimate of the magnitude of palaeontology’s dark data ..."

S. McLoughlin (2022; start on PDF-page 13): Palaeobotanical collections and facilities at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
In PDF, 11^th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference Abstracts, Program and Proceedings. See also here.

The National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior (the Museum Management Program (MMP), part of the National Center for Cultural Resources Stewardship):
! NPS Museum Handbook. This is a reference guide on how to manage, preserve, document, access and use museum collections. Go to:
Part I: Museum Collections.
Part II, Museum Records.
Part III, Museum Collections Use.
All files are in PDF format. See especially:
! Appendix U: Curatorial Care of Paleontological and Geological Collections (in PDF).
Appendix K: Photography (in PDF).

Natural Science Collections Alliance. The Natural Science Collections Alliance is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit association that supports natural science collections, their human resources, the institutions that house them, and their research activities for the benefit of science and society.

American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: Division of Paleontology, Frontdoor. Search the largest fossil collection in the World (taxonomically, geocronologically, geographically, or stratigraphically). No fossil plants online up to now.

OeTyp-[sic!]Catalogue of Palaeontological Types in Austrian Collections (a project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Commission for the Palaeontological and Stratigraphical Research of Austria) and the Natural History Museum Vienna.
A database showing published palaeontological types, figured specimens and reference material in Austrian collections.

D.R. Oldroyd (ed.), 2002: The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century. In PDF, Geological Society Special Publication 192.
Table of contents on PDF page 6. See especially:
! PDF page 336, S.J. Knell: Collecting, conservation and conservatism: late twentieth century developments in the culture of British geology.

A. Palandacic et al. (2024): An annotated catalogue of selected historical type specimens, including genetic data, housed in the Natural History Museum Vienna. Free access, ZooKeys, 1203: 253–323.

The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), Ithaca, New York.
PRI, affiliated with Cornell University, pursues and integrates education and research. PRI houses one of the largest fossil collections in North America.
See also here.

The Palaeontology Newsletter (issued by the Palaeontological Association).
The Palaeontology Newsletter contains a mixture of palaeontological news, book reviews, reviews of past meetings, details of forthcoming meetings as well as a series of regular discussion features. Copies of the Newsletter from Issue 27 onward are available online.
You may navigate from the Newsletter Archive.

! The Paleobiology Database (PBDB).
PBDB is a public database of paleontological data that anyone can use, maintained by an international non-governmental group of paleontologists. The Paleobiology Database has been supported by many grants over the years, mostly from the National Science Foundation. You may navigate from the
Paleobiology Database Guest Menu or check out the
Frequently Asked Questions. Please also note the detailed and excellent tutorial:
! M.D. Uhen et al. (2023): Paleobiology Database User Guide Version 1.0 Free access, PaleoBios, 40: 1-56. See also here (in PDF).

! The Paleobiolgy Database (original working group funded by NCEAS, web page maintained by John Alroy, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA). The Paleobiology Database purpose is to provide global, collection-based occurrence and taxonomic data for marine and terrestrial animals and plants of any geological age, as well as web-based software for statistical analysis of the data. You may search by the generalized table of spatiotemporal coverage, or by a list of major individual data sets that have been reposited in the database.

S.E. Peters and N.A. Heim (2010): The geological completeness of paleontological sampling in North America. PDF file, Paleobiology, 36: 61-79.
See also here.

R. Rößler (2014): Das Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz - eine Erfolgsgeschichte (in German). PDF file, go to PDF page 47. Mitteilungen und Berichte aus dem Institut für Museumsforschung, 52.

San Diego Natural History Museum:
Paleontology.

Department of Paleontology, San Diego Natural History Museum: Paleontology Collection Data Access.

B. Sánchez et al. (2020): The Paleontological Collection of the Facultad de Ingeniería of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In PDF, Paleontología Mexicana, 6: 1-9. See also here.

The Burke Museum, Seattle, WA, United States:
Paleobotany at the Burke Museum.

The Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt, Germany: SeSam. This database enables you to access information concerning the objects stored in the collection of the Senckenberg Museum.

SESAR, the Solid Earth SAmple Registry (an NSF funded project, by geosamples.org): SESAR is building a web-based digital registry for solid earth samples that will provide for the first time a way to uniquely name and identify samples on a global scale by means of the International Geo Sample Number IGSN. Establishing SESAR and the IGSN will have a wide-ranging impact on sample and data management, especially with respect to sample sharing and data integration, addressing a basic requirement for interoperability among information systems for sample-based data.

O.A. Shevchuk et al. (2024): The palaeobotanical heritage of Ukraine and its endangered status following the Russian military invasion. Free access, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 331.
"... rich and scientifically important fossils of early multicellular organisms have been documented from the Ediacaran, early land plants from the Silurian–Devonian, coal-forming floras from the Carboniferous, typical postextinction recovery vegetation and coal swamp forests from the Triassic and Jurassic, and well-preserved angiosperms and conifers from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic
[...] The impact of the war on Ukrainian museums and scientific collections has implications for how fossil specimens are stored and what procedures are enacted to preserve collections in other parts of the world in the event of war, civil disturbance, or natural disasters ..."

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History: Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems DataNet. ETE DataNet is designed to make large datasets on fossil faunas and floras from continental deposits available to the global scientific community and the public via the internet. It provides a standarized format, map searchability, query functions and downloading capabilities.

F.F. Steininger and U. Jansen, Naturmuseum und Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main: Die paläontologischen Sammlungen Deutschlands. Palaeontological collections in Germany, sorted in alphabetical order (PDF file). In German. Excellent!

SYNTHESYS.
SYNTHESYS is a European Commission - funded project, creating an integrated European infrastructure for natural history collections.
! Access:
SYNTHESYS funding is available to allow scientists based in European Member and Associated States to undertake short visits to utilize the collections, staff expertise, and analytical facilities at one of the 21 partner institutions for the purposes of their research. A core element is to provide funded researcher visits (Access) to the 390,000,000 specimens housed by SYNTHESYS institutions.
! Virtual Access:
For the first time in the SYNTHESYS programme, users will be able to request virtual access to collections. Participating institutions will digitise collections according to community demand and data will be made openly available.

V. Vajda and C.B. Skovsted (2021): Advances in Swedish palaeontology; the importance of fossils in natural history collections - The Department of Palaeobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. In PDF, GFF, 143: 93-10; DOI: 10.1080/11035897.2021.1968198. See also here.

! Cornelia Weber, Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Berlin:
The History of Scientific Collections (supported by the the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG).
The project intends to catalogue German universities' collections and to compile extensive data on the holdings and history of these collections, in order to form the basis of a specific investigation into the history of science and a historical analysis of collecting. Go to:
! University museums and collections in Germany.

I. Werneburg (2023): Fossile Pflanzen. Die Paläobotanische Schausammlung in Tübingen (1983 bis 2017). PDF file, in German. Chelyops, Berichte aus der Paläontologischen Sammlung in Tübingen, 2: 139-178.
! Note the depicted specimens in the photo documentation (plates) on pages 156-178 (PDF pages 18-40).

I. Werneburg (2021): Ein Stück Kulturgeschichte. Zur Entwicklung der Paläontologischen Sammlung Tübingen. PDF file, in German. In: B. Engler and E. Seidl (eds.): Aus der Tiefenzeit. Die Paläontologische Sammlung der Universität Tübingen. Schriften des Museums der Universität Tübingen MUT, 20.

I. Werneburg and M. Böhme (2018): The Palaeontologial Collection of Tübingen. In PDF. Note also here.
In L.A. Beck, U. Joger (eds.), Paleontological Collections of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Natural History Collection. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77401-5_52. Worth checking out:
Table of contents (57 chapters).

Whitby Museum, The Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society, UK: SCARBOROUGH & WHITBY MUSEUMS TYPE & FIGURED FOSSILS CATALOGUE, LIST OF SPECIMENS. Scroll down to "Plantae". Images of Cheirolepis setosus, Cheirolepis setosus woolleri, Clathopteris whitbiensis, Cyclopteris beani, Flabellaria? viminea, Marzaria simpsoni, Nageiopsis anglica, Nilssonia compta, Optopteris acuminata, Otozamites, Pachypteris lanceolata, Pecopteris propinqua, Pecopteris undans, Pterophyllum comptum, Sphenopteris williamsonis, Williamsonia gigas, Williamsonia himas, Zamia gigas.

P. Wolniewicz (2009): Easily-accessible digital palaeontological databases - a new perspective for the storage of palaeontological information. Free access, Geologos, 15: 181-188.
"... In order to develop an easily accessible digital palaeontological database, three steps should be followed: (1) digitization of the studied specimens, (2) acquisition of morphometric data, and (3) contribution of the data to open and searchable geoinformatic (palaeontological) databases ..."

I. Zorn et al. (2007): Historische Kostbarkeiten der Sammlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt in Wien, Österreich. Historic treasures in the collections at the Geological Survey, Vienna, Austria. In PDF, GeoAlp.

Home / Institutions & Organisations / Palaeobotanical and Palaeontological Collections / Fossil Protection

! American Museum of Natural History and The Paleontology Portal, Collections Management: A Resource for Managing Fossil Collections. This site is divided into four sections (acquiring, storing, tracking, sharing), describing the main activities in managing a fossil collection.

American Museum of Natural History:
! Fossil Preparation. This site is intended as a central resource on fossil preparation for anyone who has an interest in paleontology. Worth checking out:
Collecting (Preparing for the field, techniques in the field).

P. Appleton et al. (2015; article starts on PDF page 21): Making the most of Brymbo’s plant fossils . Earth Heritage, 43.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

P. Appleton et al. (2011): The Brymbo Fossil Forest. In PDF, Geology Today, 27: 107–113.
See also here.

The Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences (AAPS), River Heights, UT: The AAPS (formerly, "American Association of Paleontological Suppliers") was organized to create a professional association of commercial fossil (and mineral) collectors and preparators for the purpose of promoting ethical collecting practices and cooperative liaisons with researchers, instructors, curators and exhibit managers in the academic and museum paleontological community.

BBC News: Rare fossils in India threatened (by Salman Ravi, July 25, 2008).

M. Benton et al. (2022): Establishment of the Luoping Biota National Geopark in Yunnan, China. In PDF, Geconservation Research, 5: 261-284.
See also here.

C. Bisulca et al. (2012): Variation in the Deterioration of Fossil Resins and Implications for the Conservation of Fossils in Amber. In PDF, American Museum of Natural History.
see also here.

V. Blagoderov and V.S. Smith (2012): Bringing collections out of the dark. In PDF, ZooKeys, 209: 1-6.

V. Blagoderov et al. (2012): No specimen left behind: industrial scale digitization of natural history collections. In PDF, Zookeys, 2012, (209): 133-146.

E.M. Bordy et al. (2024): Selected Karoo geoheritage sites of palaeontological significance in South Africa and Lesotho. Open access, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 543: 431-446. See likewise here.
Note figure 3c: Palaeo-art mural of a late Permian scene (artwork by Gerhard Marx).
Figure 9f: Reconstruction of the Early Jurassic dinosaur-dominated ecosystem of southern Gondwana.

W. Douglas Boyce, Department of Mines and Energy, Geological Survey Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador: Fossil Protection Links. See also here.
Snapshots provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

D.E. Bruno et al. (2014): Paleogeography as geological heritage: Developing geosite classification. In PDF, Earth-Science Reviews, 138: 300–312. See also here.

R.J. Burnham (2008): Hide and Go Seek: What Does Presence Mean in the Fossil Record. Abstract, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 95: 51-71. See also here (in PDF).

T.C. Cantwell (2023): The Fossil Forest of Axel Heiberg Island In PDF. See also here.
Note figure 1: Erosion of 40-million-year-old tree stump.
"... Over the years of study and surveying, several stumps have seemingly disappeared. In 1992, 62 stumps that had been recorded in 1988 could no longer be located
[...] Unfortunately, in addition to academic visits by careful researchers, the site was also exposed to some looting, especially fruitless hunts for amber thanks to the release of Jurassic Park in 1993 ..."

J.A. Catalani (2011): Assuring a Paleontological Legacy. In PDF, go to PDF page 24. American Paleontologist, 19.

! J.C. Cisneros et al. (2022): Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil. Open access, R. Soc. Open Sci., 9: 210898.

! C.J. Cleal & B. A. Thomas: A Provisional World List of Geosites for Palaeozoic Palaeobotany. Initiated by the IUGS to develop an inventory of globally important geological sites. GEOSITES provide a provisional list of candidate Palaeozoic palaeobotany sites. The results are summarized in 40 sites, which are intended to show the broad pattern of evolution in land floras from the middle Silurian to the end of the Permian.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
See also here.

A. Collareta et al. (2023): Reviewing the Palaeontological and Palaeoenvironmental Heritage of the Monti Pisani Massif (Italy): A Compelling History of Animals, Plants and Climates through Three Geological Eras. Open access, Geosciences, 13

CollectiveAccess. This is a highly configurable cataloguing tool and web-based application for museums, archives and digital collections. Available free of charge!

D. DeMiguel et al. (2021): Linking geological heritage and geoethics with a particular emphasis on palaeontological heritage: the new concept of ‘palaeontoethics’. Open access, Geoheritage, volume 13.
"... This work aims at providing an overview on the meaning and scope of geoethics and how it intersects geoheritage and the practice of geoconservation. ..."

! G.P. Dietl et al. (2015): Conservation paleobiology: leveraging knowledge of the past to inform conservation and restoration. In PDF, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 43: 79-103.
See likewise here.

Earth Heritage (produced by Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales, the Geologists' Association and the Quaternary Research Association. GeoConservationUK and others in the voluntary geoconservation sector are major contributors).
Earth Heritage is produced twice yearly to stimulate interest in geodiversity and a broad range of geological and landscape conservation issues within the UK and further afield. It is free in pdf format.

A.R. Fiorillo and T. Hamon (2024): The dinosaur-bearing rocks of Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve: A fossil resource of global interest. Free access, Parks Stewardship Forum, 40.
Note figure 3: Upright fossil tree trunk.

! D.A. Fordham et al. (2020): Using paleo-archives to safeguard biodiversity under climate change. In PDF, Science, 369.
See likewise here.
"... Fordham et al. review when and where rapid climate transitions can be found in the paleoclimate record
[...] They also highlight how recent developments at the intersection of paleoecology, paleoclimatology, and macroecology can provide opportunities to anticipate and manage the responses of species and ecosystems to changing climates in the Anthropocene ..."

Fossil Preparation (American Museum of Natural History and The Paleontology Portal). Go to: Labeling.

Geoheritage. This journal details all aspects of our global geoheritage. It examines conservation of sites and materials.

The Geological Curators Group (GCG):
GCG is a membership organisation affiliated to the Geological Society of London. GCG strives to connect every geological collection with appropriate resources, knowledge and skills to thrive and positively impact science and society.

Geologischer Dienst Nordrhein-Westfalen (in German):
Geotope – Fenster der Erdgeschichte.
! Geologischer Dienst NRW (2022): Geologie und Boden in Nordrhein-Westfalen. In PDF.

GeologyCafe.com:
Anaglyph (3D) Imaging and Field Geology. How anaglyphs are made and the about 3D camera configuration. See also:

U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior: 3-D Tours Featuring Park Geology.
These expired links are still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

German Commission for UNESCO Bonn, Germany.
The German Commission for UNESCO is an intermediary of foreign cultural and educational policy. Note especially:
Geoparks weltweit (in German).
Geoparks in Deutschland (in German).
! Map of German Geoparks.
Nationale GeoParks (provided by GeoUnion Alfred-Wegener-Stiftung; in German).

C.A. Góis-Marques et al. (2019): The loss of a unique palaeobotanical site in Terceira Island within the Azores UNESCO global geopark (Portugal). Free access, Geoheritage, 11: 1817-1825.

Geoscience Centre, GZG, Georg-August-University Göttingen: Geobiology.
! Go to: Deutschsprachige Paläontologische Gesellschaften nehmen Stellung zum Regierungsentwurf der "Kulturgutschutz-–Novellierung" und zum Schutz von paläontologischem Kulturgut.
! See also: Kulturgutschutzgesetz-Regierungsentwurf. PDF files, in German.

J.E. Gordon et al. (2023): Valuing the Quaternary – Nature conservation and geoheritage. Open access, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 134: 375–387.

David R. Greenwood, Environmental Science Program, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada: Fossil collecting etiquette.
Can be still accessed through the internet wayback archive.

! C. Haug et al. (2020): Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding �"Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil.based scientific data": the importance of private collections. Open access, PalZ.

R. Heady (2012): The Wollemi Pine—16 years on. In PDF, Chapter 15: Australia’s Ever-changing Forests VI: Proceedings of the Eighth National Conference on Australian Forest History. Brett J. Stubbs et al. (ed.).
Snapshot provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Marguerite Holloway, Scientific American May 2002 issue: Trees of the Triassic. In the Painted Desert of Arizona, a story of how forests turned to stone and how the stones are walking away.

The International Commission on Geoheritage (ICG) (a permanent commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)):
! The First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites. In PDF, 153 pages. This collaborative achievement is authored by more than 350 experts from more than 40 countries. Breathtaking photographs! Superbly done! Don't miss:
Site 031: The Fossil Cliffs of Joggins (on page 94; PDF page 49).
Site 040: The Early Miocene Petrified Forest of Lesvos (on page 112; PDF page 58).

D.M. Jarzen, Florida Museum of Natural History: Paleobotany Collection Policies.

International Palaeontological Association (IPA): PaleoParks Initiative. The preservation and conservation of fossil sites worldwide.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Peterborough, UK. The JNCC is the UK Government's wildlife adviser, undertaking national and international conservation work on behalf of the three country nature conservation agencies English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Countryside Council for Wales. Go to: Earth Heritage > Geological Conservation Review (GCR) > GCR Database,
! Palaeozoic Palaeobotany,
! Mesozoic Palaeobotany,
! Tertiary Palaeobotany.
The GCR sites represent the British fossil record of vascular land plants. Excellent!
These expired links are available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Glen J. Kuban, Kuban´s Paleo Place: Fossil Legislation and Ethics. Internet resources on fossil-related legislation, collecting rights, and ethics.
Can be accessed through the internet wayback archive.

J.G. Larwood et al. (2022; start on PDF-page 104): Fresh perspectives on paleontological heritage and the stewardship of non-renewable fossil resources. In PDF, Parks Stewardship Forum, 38.
See also here.

D. Lewis (2019): The fight for control over virtual fossils. Palaeontologists have been urged to share 3D scans of fossils online, but a Nature analysis finds that few researchers do so.
Nature News Feature.

! Jere H. Lipps and Bruno R.C. Granier (eds.), 2009 (e-book, hosted by Carnets):
PaleoParks - The protection and conservation of fossil sites worldwide.
This volume reviews the International Paleontological Association's activities and plans, and provides examples of successful protection (six chapters) and of endangered or unprotected possible sites of importance ( four chapters). Invited contributions based on presentations given at the three PaleoParks Workshops at the International Geological Congress in Florence (2004) and Oslo (2008) and the International Paleontological Congress in Beijing (2006).

! Jere H. Lipps and Bruno R.C. Granier (eds.), 2009 (e-book, hosted by Carnets): PaleoParks - The protection and conservation of fossil sites worldwide. (HTML and PDF versions). Also available from here (scroll down for table of contents).
This volume reviews the International Paleontological Association's activities and plans, and provides examples of successful protection (six chapters) and of endangered or unprotected possible sites of importance ( four chapters). Invited contributions based on presentations given at the three PaleoParks Workshops at the International Geological Congress in Florence (2004) and Oslo (2008) and the International Paleontological Congress in Beijing (2006).

P.C. Murphey et al. (2014), on PDF page 7: A foundation for best practices in mitigation paleontology. In PDF. Proceedings of the 10th Conference on Fossil Resources Rapid City, SD. Dakoterra, 6: 243–285.

! P.C. Murphey et al. (2004): Georeferencing of museum collections: A review of problems and automated tools, and the methodology developed by the Mountain and Plains Spatio-Temporal Database- Informatics Initiative (Mapstedi). In PDF, PhyloInformatics 3: 1-29.

The National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior (the Museum Management Program (MMP), part of the National Center for Cultural Resources Stewardship):
! NPS Museum Handbook. This is a reference guide on how to manage, preserve, document, access and use museum collections. Go to:
Part I: Museum Collections.
Part II, Museum Records.
Part III, Museum Collections Use.
All files are in PDF format. See especially:
! Appendix U: Curatorial Care of Paleontological and Geological Collections (in PDF).
Appendix K: Photography (in PDF).

North Coast Fossil Club, Cleveland, Ohio:
North Coast Fossil Club Safety Rules, and
Field Trip Safety (by Glen J. Kuban).
This expired link is still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! The Paleontological Society.
The Paleontological Society is an international nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to the advancement of the science of paleontology.
Code of Fossil Collecting.

! The Paleontology Portal (produced by the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the Paleontological Society, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and the United States Geological Survey, with funding from the National Science Foundation). The Paleontology Portal is a website providing a central, interactive entry point to North American paleontology resources on the Internet. Go to: Collecting and Legalities. Information on where and how to collect fossils legally.

Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), Ithaca, NY: (PRI was founded by Gilbert Dennison Harris, 1865-1952):
The Paleontological Research Institution pursues and integrates education and research, and interprets the history and systems of the Earth and its life. Go to:
Conservation Paleobiology. Opportunities for the Earth Sciences. In PDF, Report of an NSF-Funded Workshop, 2011. Table of contents on PDF page 04. Worth checking out:
PDF page 09: "Major Science Themes in Conservation Paleobiology".
PDF page 17: "Frontiers in Conservation Paleobiology".
PDF page 19: "Emerging Opportunities for the Earth Sciences" (i.e. Analysis and Modeling of the Near-time Fossil Record, Scaling and Other Issues for Merging Neo- and Paleobiological Data, etc.).

! PaleoParks - The protection and conservation of fossil sites worldwide. Organized by Jere H. Lipps, Carnets de Géologie.
This special volume consists of invited contributions based on presentations given at the three PaleoParks Workshops at the International Geological Congress in Florence (2004) and Oslo (2008) and the International Paleontological Congress in Beijing (2006).

W.G. Parker et al. (2024): New perspectives on NPS paleontological resource stewardship: Scientific, curatorial, and educational outcomes at Petrified Forest National Park. Free access, Parks Stewardship Forum, 40. https://doi.org/10.5070/P540162930.

M.G. Passalia et al. (2023): The Valcheta Petrified Forest (Upper Cretaceous), northern Patagonia, Argentina: A geological and paleobotanical survey. In PDF, Journal of South American Earth Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105395.
See also here.

E. Pijet-Migon and P. Migon (2022): Geoheritage and Cultural Heritage—A Review of Recurrent and Interlinked Themes. Free access, Geosciences, 12, 98. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/geosciences12020098.

Lisa M. Pinsker, Geotimes June 2003: European Geoconservation. Now 12 parks strong, the European Geoparks Network spans Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany, with scenes ranging from petrified forest to coastal cliff.

! S.E. Pratt (2014): Benchmarks: September 1, 1957: Fossil Cycad National Monument is dissolved. Earth, September 01, 2014.
See also here (National Fossil Day).
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

C. Salcido et al. (2024): Research put into action: How a fossil inventory informed paleontological resource monitoring efforts preceding road construction at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Free access, Parks Stewardship Forum.
"... Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO) in western North Dakota that comprises badlands
[...] Results of monitoring included the discovery of new paleontological material, including bird material and well-preserved angiosperm fossils ..."

V.L. Santucci et al. (2023): The price of neglect: Revisiting Fossil Cycad National Monument (1922–1957). Free access, Parks Stewardship Forum, 40.
"... Previously unknown records continue to emerge, helping to expand and reshape the understanding of the monument’s unfortunate history, and also raising new questions. Some of the newly uncovered information is presented here ..."

V.L. Santucci et al. (2023): The National Park System fossil record: Uncovering significant new paleontological discoveries through inventory, monitoring, research and museum curation. Free access, Parks Stewardship Forum, 40.
Note figure 1: Map of the United States showing the location of the 286 National Park Service units where fossils have been documented.
"... The fossil record preserved throughout the parks, monuments, and other areas administered by the National Park Service spans at least 1.4 billion years and reveals rich and diverse paleontological resources available for scientific research and public education ..."

Vincent L. Santucci, National Park Service, Kemmerer, WY, and Marikka Hughes, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Paleobotany Division, New Haven: Fossil Cycad National Monument: A Case of Paleontological Resource Mismanagement. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Vincent Santucci and Lindsay McClelland (eds.): National Park Service, Paleontological Research. Reports documenting the multi-park-based Morrison Ecosystem Project, the fossil bee´s nest at Petrified Forest National Park, and fossil mollusks from Alcatraz Island at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This volume contains the first reports on paleontological inventories for Bryce Canyon National Park, Denali National Park, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, and Ozark National Scenic Riverway and the unfortunate story regarding the abolished Fossil Cycad National Monument.
Also availabe in PDF.

! S. Simonsen (2020): Fossilien und Recht. In German, Deutscher Kulturrat e.V., Berlin.

Els Slots, The Netherlands: World Heritage Site, Categories. Go to: Geological formation, Paleontology.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). SPNHC is an international organization devoted to the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections. Go to:
Guidelines for the Care of Natural History Collections. This document is meant to serve as a tool for institutions and their staffs to continue to elevate the standards of managing and caring for natural history collections. It has been particularly gratifying that the review and comments have involved individuals from all of the professions associated with the use and care of natural history collections: collection managers, curators, conservators, administrators, research scientists, registrars, archivists, etc.

A.R.T. Spencer and C. Strullu-Derrien (2017): Photogrammetry: preserving for future generations an important fossil site situated in Maine-et-Loire (France). Poster, in PDF.
Large 1–9m lycoposid stems and branches, rhizomes and leaves, preserved as carbonized adpressions or 3D mold/casts.

Steinkern.de: For preserving the right to collect. See also here (in German).
See especeally: ! For preserving the right to privately collect fossils.

Die Süddeutsche (a German nespaper): Fossilien als Wertanlage - Ein Knochenjob. (by Jannis Brühl, 13.01.2012). About fossil trading in Germany (in German).

I. Szente et al. (2019): Managing and Surveying the Geological Garden at Tata (Northern Transdanubia, Hungary). Open access, Geoheritage, 11: 1353–1365.

B.A. Thomas (2016): A Carboniferous Fossil Forest in North Wales: Problems and Potentials Associated with Developing and Conserving a "Soft-Rock" Site. Geoheritage.

I. Tomelleri et al. (2022): The plant fossils in the paleontological collection Georg Gasser (1857–1931). In PDF, Geo. Alp, 19. See also here.

! M.J. Tyler et al. (2023): Calamities causing loss of museum collections: a historical and global perspective on museum disasters. In PDF, Zootaxa, 5230: 153–178.
See also here and there.

Division of Earth Sciences, UNESCO, Paris: International Network of Geoparks. In response to the perceived need for an international initiative for the recognition of sites and terrains specifically of earth science interest, UNESCO launched the International Network of Geoparks programme. This programme has the dual objective of enhancing the value of sites which act as key witnesses to the Earth's history whilst creating employment and promoting regional economic development. See also: World Heritage List. It focuses on the protection of cultural and natural sites of outstanding universal value. Go to: UNESCO World Heritage List. The following properties have been approved by the World Heritage Committee to be included on UNESCO´s World Heritage List.

Steve Wagner, Paleocurrents.com, Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS): Fossil Protection Links and Fossil Show Controversy. A look at the debates surrounding commercial fossil excavations and public shows.

J.W.F. Waldron et al. (2016): Building an Outdoor Classroom for Field Geology: The Geoscience Garden. In PDF, Journal of Geoscience Education, 64: 215-230.
See also here.

Xiaoming Wang (2013): Mortgaging the future of chinese paleontology. PNAS, 110.

J. Weber (2016): America´s Lost National Park Units: A Closer Look. In PDF, The George Wright Forum, 33: 59-69.
South Dakota´s Fossil Cycad NM among other delisted national park units. See also here (Wikipedia).

Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor: Skullduggery among Russia's old bones. Disappearing fossils leave a trail of unanswered questions.
Snapshot provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

R.T. Wells: Earth´s geological history: a contextual framework for assessment of World Heritage fossil site nominations. Free access.
See also here.

! Whirl-i-Gig (a software development firm working in the varied worlds of museums, biological research and conservation, natural history, material culture, and art history):
CollectiveAccess (formerly known as OpenCollection). This is a full-featured collections management and online access application for museums, archives and digital collections. CollectiveAccess is freely available open-source software.

P.J. Whybrow (1985): A history of fossil collecting and preparation techniques. In PDF.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Geopark,
Global Geoparks Network,
Protected areas.
Fossil trade.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Category:Paleontological protected areas in the United States.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Category:Fossils.
Category:Paleontological sites.
List of fossil sites.
Category:Lagerstätten.
! Lagerstätte.
Category:Crato Formation.
Rhynie chert.
Joggins Formation.
Mazon Creek fossil beds.
Green River Formation.
London Clay.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (in German):
Kategorie:Fossillagerstätte in Deutschland.
Grube Messel.
Fossillagerstätte Rott.
Fossillagerstätte Geiseltal.

W.A.P. Wimbledon et al. (2000): Geosites, a IUGS initiative: science supported by conservation. PDF file, pp. 69-94. In: D. Barettino, W.A.P. Wimbledon and E. Gallego (eds.): Geological Heritage: its conservation and management. Madrid. Including a list of geosites in the UK (Appendix 1, PDF page 13).
Website outdated, download a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here.

Ewan Wolff, Montana State University Geoscience Education Web Development Team: Advances in Paleontology.
Still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

P. Wolniewicz (2009): Easily-accessible digital palaeontological databases - a new perspective for the storage of palaeontological information. In PDF, Geologos, 15: 181-188.

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