Viewing the New York State Museum Fossil Collection

[Jeffrey P]

Last Monday, February 5th I had the privilege of touring the New York State Museum's enormous fossil collection  with the state paleontologist, Lisa Amati. The collection is stored in three rooms on the third floor of the State Education Building in Albany in the same building that contains the New York State Museum. Right now, only a few fossils are displayed in the State Museum which is primarily historical and social in focus. In the lobby is this slab which contains dozens of Middle Devonian starfish- Devonaster.  

[Jeffrey P]

The collection's three rooms include one large general room with many aisles lined with uniform gray cabinets which in turn contain numerous drawers. The fossils are organized by taxa. The two smaller rooms are climate controlled. The fossils are still in the process of being inventoried and no ones knows how many are in the collection- but it likely numbers in the hundreds of thousands or more. I was surprised to learn that many of the fossils are not from New York State though probably the vast majority are. This is the cast of an Isoteles gigas trilobite:  

[Jeffrey P]

These are some Devonian gastropods:

[Jeffrey P]

A Silurian Eurypterid- Lisa Amati's favorite: 

[Jeffrey P]

A goniatite preserved in pyrite: 

[Jeffrey P]

A Eusthenopteron lobe-fin fish:

[Jeffrey P]

A starfish:

[Jeffrey P]

A Waptia from the Burgess Shale: 

[Jeffrey P]

A Lower Devonian Psilophyton plant from Quebec removed from the matrix: 

[Jeffrey P]

The Naples tree, an over ten foot long Devonian lycopod found in marine sediments:

[Jeffrey P]

The cast of a stump of an Eospermatopteris tree from Gilboa , NY, the oldest fossil forest in the world:

[Jeffrey P]

This is a picture of Lisa Amati posing in front of an aisle of storage cabinets just to give you an idea of how the collection appears. I spent almost two hours viewing the collection, but was only able to see a tiny fraction of it.  Someday I hope to return and see more. Eventually, it is hoped that more of the collection will be on display so the general public can view and admire it. I'm sure we would all love that:

[Darktooth]

@Jeffrey P Thanks for sharing this! I love those starfish. You must be itching to get out and do some Devonian fossilhunting.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks for sharing! 

Lovely post. 

I want some of those Devonian gastropods! 

Is Lisa married?  

[jpc]

Nice report.  I used to hang out with Lisa way back in her University of Wyoming days.  

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report, Jeff!

Glad you had a chance to visit!

Thank you, for the vicarious field trip.  

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for giving us a peep behind the scenes. I assume it's not open to the general public, but I guess they are open to giving tours to interested people if you managed to get in. Were there any researchers at work there during your visit?

[oldtimer]

Thanks for posting up the pics and the report about all those hidden treasures.

You must be special to get the behind the scene tour.

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 9:27 PM, Darktooth said:

@Jeffrey P Thanks for sharing this! I love those starfish. You must be itching to get out and do some Devonian fossilhunting.

Thanks Dave. That starfish slab I think is one of the best fossils I've seen come out of New York State. You have to see it in person. You bet I'm itching to collect more Devonian material, but right now New Jersey's Cretaceous has been treating me well. 

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 11:44 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Thanks for sharing! 

Lovely post. 

I want some of those Devonian gastropods! 

Is Lisa married?  

Thanks Adam. That's a funny question. I'd love some of those gastropods too. I wonder where in Schoharie County, NY they came from.

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 12:27 PM, jpc said:

Nice report.  I used to hang out with Lisa way back in her University of Wyoming days.  

Thanks. Nice to hear of your association with Lisa.

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 5:08 PM, Fossildude19 said:

Excellent report, Jeff!

Glad you had a chance to visit!

Thank you, for the vicarious field trip.  

Thanks Tim. Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe we can go together sometime. 

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 6:24 PM, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for giving us a peep behind the scenes. I assume it's not open to the general public, but I guess they are open to giving tours to interested people if you managed to get in. Were there any researchers at work there during your visit?

Thanks Roger. I am very appreciative that I received a personal tour. Lisa and Ed Landing (the previous state paleontologist, now retired) are both doing work there cataloguing Cambrian fossils. Ed wasn't there when I was but I saw the table where he normally sits and the specimens he's working on. he's been focusing on the early Cambrian. Lisa is cataloguing trilobites from the Potsdam Formation. The specimens are tiny and just fragments, but they've never been catalogued even though they were collected a hundred years ago. 

[Jeffrey P]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 8:22 PM, oldtimer said:

Thanks for posting up the pics and the report about all those hidden treasures.

You must be special to get the behind the scene tour.

Thanks.

[Tidgy's Dad]

47 minutes ago, Jeffrey P said:

Thanks Adam. That's a funny question. I'd love some of those gastropods too. I wonder where in Schoharie County, NY they came from.

Dating someone is a good way to get near to their fossils.