This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The award will support renovation of four research spaces at the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) to create a set of modern, functional, adaptable, and safe shared laboratories conducive to the type of research supported by PRI's collections, library, and other research resources. The renovations will position PRI to leverage its collections, research, and outreach strengths in 21st Century paleobiology, by building basic infrastructure to support current research and allow PRI to sustain and advance its level of cutting-edge, fundable research into the future.
Laboratories to be renovated include: BioLab which will be the PRI 'clean lab' for microscope work (including dissection, microfossil processing, sorting bulk samples, etc.); WetLab (= Aquarium Lab) which will be the PRI 'live room' for the maintenance of living aquatic invertebrates (no vertebrates, aquatic or terrestrial, will be maintained under the present configuration); PaleoLab which will be the PRI 'dirty lab' for processing field collections and rough specimen preparation; and PrepLab which will be dedicated to fine specimen preparation, using rotary tools and air abrasion (mini-sand blasting), and for specimen molding and casting. This lab also serves as a museum exhibition, in that all research activities that occur here are in full view of the visiting public through three large windows into the Museum gallery.
Nearly all research at PRI has outreach components built into it. PRI has an outstanding and ambitious outreach program that makes extensive use of its specimen collections to help K-12, public, and college audiences better understand the nature of the historical sciences. The laboratory renovations will allow PRI to greatly improve and expand upon existing programs that reach the public, school groups, teachers, and others. The renovations will facilitate bringing Museum visitors 'into the lab' through interactive specimen preparation. PRI will also document laboratory activities with on-going research using in-house technology such as videography to document lab activities, for use in public exhibits, teacher professional development resources, and online virtual exhibits.
(PRI), in Ithaca, NY, is firmly grounded in its history of specimen-based research and education. Founded in 1932 by a retiring Cornell University professor, and for most of its history a small, relatively limited operation (except in collections and publications), PRI today is a world-class research and education facility, boasting 25 FTEs (17 with Ph.D. or M.S. degrees) plus students in paleontology and neontology, formal associations with Cornell University and Ithaca College, one of the country’s largest fossil collections, the oldest continuously-published paleo-journal in the Americas (Bulletins of American Paleontology), and its 18,000 sq. ft. Museum of the Earth (with >30,000 visitors/yr). As of August 2009, PRI managed ca. $3.5 million in active grants from NSF and other private and governmental agencies for research, collections management, and educational outreach. Despite this extraordinary level of growth and success, research facilities at PRI were at below-basic levels, ill-equipped to support funded research, or to train students and postdocs, and were in great need of renovation and upgrading. This NSF-supported grant, received in September 2010, allowed PRI to renovate existing spaces to create a set of modern, functional, adaptable, and safe laboratories conducive to the type of research supported by PRI’s collections, library, and other research resources. A once-single laboratory, simultaneously supporting microscopes, saltwater aquaria, and dusty rock saws side-by-side, is now expanded and compartmentalized into units appropriate for function and equipment maintenance. BioLab is a "clean lab" for microscope work, including dissection, microfossil sorting, scanning electron microscopy, and histology; it is PRI’s primary location for sensitive equipment and chemical procedures. PaleoLab is a "dirty lab" for coarse fossil preparation, including washing and cutting collections of rocks and fossils straight from the field in preparation for finer treatment (sorting in BioLab or preparation in Prep Lab) in other labs. This laboratory also is home to two of PRI's ongoing outreach projects - Mastodon Matrix and Fossil Finders - citizen science programs that involve shipping a weighed bulk sample of fossiliferous soil or shale to a classroom of students for processing. WetLab is an "aquarium room" for the maintenance of living aquatic invertebrates and plants. Although one might not expect a paleontological institution to work on living animals, scientists at PRI often do so to compare results to the fossil record. Last but certainly not least is Prep Lab, a complete renovation of the Museum of the Earth’s original Preparation Laboratory built in 2003. Prep Lab is both a research space and a public exhibition; PRI staff, graduate students, and trained volunteers conduct fossil specimen preparation in full view of the visiting public. The renovation improved access to the viewing windows that allow visitors to talk with experts in the lab. It added cabinets, a fume hood (for fossil casting), and a monitor outside the lab that displays images from a microscope camera, providing visitors with a close look at the process. From the massive bones of dinosaurs to the delicate skeletons of Green River fish, a wide variety of scientific specimens are made ready for study and/or display. In addition to specimens from PRI, Prep Lab is also working on loaned material from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History, and other world-renowned institutions. This renovation has substantialy increased PRI's ability to leverage its collections, research, and outreach strengths in 21st Century paleobiology, by providing basic infrastructure to support current research and allow PRI to sustain and advance its level of cutting-edge, fundable research into the future. NSF support has inspired several private individuals to donate funds for needed equipment, from very basic chairs and stools to a freezer for BioLab and a new rock saw for PaleoLab. Students and interns now work in safe, comfortable spaces with proper lighting and access to the equipment that they need. As a result, students spend more hours at study and docent participation in the Museum's Prep Lab has soared! Among the research projects being investigated in the new laboratories are: Characteristics of modern oysters affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (NSF-supported) Evidence of predation in Miocene-aged gastropods from Panama Fine structure of Recent gastropods from the Florida Keys for a book project with Princeton University Press Coiling and growth in Recent and fossil Turritella snails Preparation of a series of caudal vertebrae from a "teenaged" Apatosaurus (one of the long-necked Jurassic dinosaurs, confirmed identity by PRI scientists) from what is now Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, collected by Carnegie Museum ca. 1910
