This award provides funds to assist in the purchase of a modern scanning electron microscope (SEM) for research in systematic biology and paleoecology at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OMNH). In addition, the funds will assist in the purchase of a critical point dryer and a sputter coater, items required for the preparation of some types of materials for study with the SEM. The SEM to be purchased operates with variable pressure in the specimen chamber, and thus can image specimens at low pressure that are large (e.g., dinosaur teeth), too fragile (e.g., block of trilobite-rich shale), or too rare to be studied with conventional SEM preparation techniques. In addition, the SEM is capable of imaging very small, coated specimens (e.g., pollen, flowers) in the conventional high magnification/high pressure mode. Initially the instrument will be used by faculty/curators, research associates, graduate students, and undergraduates for studies of the systematics and evolution of flowering plants and heterosporous ferns, early Cretaceous vertebrates, Lower Paleozoic and Cenozoic bats, and other small mammals. The availability of the microscope will improve the research and educational capabilities of the University, and improve the museum's ability to preserve biological, paleontological, and archeological specimens while insuring their availability for research.
