Monday, January 29, 2018
012918d
The Geological Survey of Alabama has, since 1848, been the state's most important repository for fossils (in the beginning, it was the only such repository). At long last, through the great effort of individuals other than myself, the complete catalog of Survey fossil holdings is available and searchable online:
https://www.gsa.state.al.us/gsa/geologic/paleo/db/
This includes 20,000 numbered items, but about 200,000 fossil specimens. This is because a suite of fossils of a single species collected at a single locality on a particular date collectively get a single number. Alabama is a fossil-rich state, and ours is not the only museum with substantial holdings (others include the Alabama Museum of Natural History and the McWane science center), but I think ours is the first one with a complete catalog available online.
One more point. With a few exceptions, our holdings include only invertebrate fossils. The sister collection, primarily vertebrate fossils, is held by the Alabama Museum of Natural History, which is literally across a parking lot from our facility. Before the Museum was established in 1961, the entire collection was in one place.
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