Royal Mapes Collection
Devonian Trilobites, Morocco.Stephen Thurston
The Royal Mapes Collection of fossil invertebrates comprises an estimated 500,000 specimens in 21,000 lots, including 62 holotypes and 320 paratypes. The largest component of the collection consists of cephalopods and other marine invertebrates from the Upper Paleozoic of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Many of these fossils are rare and exceptionally well preserved, including early relatives of squid and octopus with jaws, arm hooks, and radulae, which provide researchers with valuable insights into the evolutionary origins and ancient life habits of these groups.
Other highlights include fossil marine invertebrates from Russia, Japan, England, Ireland and Vietnam, and recent nautilids from the South Pacific. The collection also contains numerous ammonoids from the type locality at Bou Tchrafine, Morocco, the international reference section for the end-Devonian mass extinction.
The collection was amassed over a period of 45 years by Professors Royal and Gene Mapes and their students at Ohio University. In 2013, this enormous collection, one of the largest ever donated to the museum, arrived on 16 shipping pallets together weighing 15,000 lbs.
In 2015, a three-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), grant #MA-30-15-0491-15, was awarded to the museum to rehouse, conserve and catalog the collection. Work on the project began in 2015 and continued through 2018. Interns were hired each summer to work on the project as part of the grant. The interns maintained a blog detailing their work and experiences in the summers of both 2016 and 2017. The entire collection has been databased.
Invertebrate Paleontology Collections Highlights
