The Vertebrate Paleontology collection of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History includes more that 30,000 specimens, collected primarily from the southern plains of the U.S. The collection is an important regional repository for fossil vertebrates, and ranks 15th among U.S. collections of its type. Most of the collection was amassed during the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of J. Willis Stovall, first Director of the Museum. Following his death in 1953 the collection was neglected and fell into disrepair, but through the efforts of Dr. Richard Cifelli, appointed as Curator in 1986, the collection has been restored to a high level of activity. Approximately one-fourth of the collection has been restored, cataloged, reorganized, and transferred to modern storage cabinets. Dr. Cifelli proposes another phase in the collection's restoration, during which fossils of Cenozoic age (mostly mammals) will also be brought to a high level of curation. The proposed collection improvement project will salvage an important research collection, and will make it easily accessible to visiting investigators and through loans. Natural history collections such as this are essential resources for research on evolution, biogeography, and global change. Continued growth and improvement of these collections will benefit many generations of researchers.
