UWBM Invertebrate Paleontology Collection

Method steps

Approximately half of the invertebrate paleontology collections are mollusks (bivalves, gastropods, ammonoids and nautiloids) from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic of western North American and the Pacific Rim. In addition to the extensive Charles E. Weaver collection of Mesozoic South American material, there are also significant collections from western Europe. Recently donated material includes: comprehensive collection of exhibit-quality decapod crabs and shrimps from the Pacific Northwest collected and donated by Ross Berglund, large collections of mollusks from Fiji and Okinawa collected and donated by Emeritus Professor Alan Kohn, and ammonoids from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary of Antarctica collected (NSF funded field work) by Peter Ward and his students in 2009 and 2011.

1. Mollusca
   common name: Molluscs rank: phylum

The 3.6 million specimens making up the Invertebrate Fossil and Microfossils Collections are arranged stratigraphically. The fossils are mostly marine and include specimens from all over the world, but the emphasis is on material from western North America. Fossils from Washington state include Cambrian trilobites and molluscs, Paleozoic fauna from accreted terrains in the north eastern and north central part of the state, Cretaceous molluscs from the Islands, and a wealth of Cenozoic marine fossils from the coastal regions. The collections also include fossils from investigations into the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, from Europe, Tunisia and Antarctica. The current digitization efforts focus on our collections of the Cenozoic era from the Eastern Pacific, ranging from Alaska to the southern tip of South America. Most of our collections in this range represent specimens from the state of Washington.