4 Everyday Geoscience

This session will focus on elevating the importance of geoscience through geoscience education (e.g., curricula development, leading fieldwork experiences, etc.) and/or convergence research (e.g., using community-focused research frameworks/methods, community-engaged research, etc.).

Monday, 18 May 2026
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Alvarado B

The Hunt is On: Reconstructing Southeastern New Mexico Pleistocene Faunal Assemblages from Museum Collections in Unlikely Places

Paper number: 4-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:05 AM – 10:25 AM

Authors

Abstract

Fieldwork is among the most time-intensive, arduous aspects of paleontological research. Less demanding, but still challenging, is locating fossil material decades after collection, particularly when specimens from an area have been dispersed among unlikely repositories. Oftentimes, the only sources of information are dated publications that casually mention collection of materials with no further reference to which institutions they will be placed. Furthermore, materials donated to museums include sparse notes with little information. These issues are well illustrated by the Pleistocene age Jal fauna of southeastern New Mexico, for which historically collected fossils are scattered across multiple regional institutions.

Contemporary materials collected from the Jal area located on Bureau of Land Management lands are curated at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. However, the earliest published records based on G. Schult’s 1940s fieldwork, are preserved in collections and field notes at the University of Nebraska State Museum. In the 1950’s equivalent age material was reported collected near Monahans, Texas, without repository information. Further investigation revealed these fossils were placed at then Texas Tech College, now the Museum at Texas Tech University. After following up with museum staff and conducting onsite examinations, it was found that these collections had never been assessed or removed from original field jackets. A fourth repository with similar age fossils from locations bordering NM is located at the Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collection (TVPC) in Austin, Texas.

Reexamination of these dispersed collections identified a previously unreported Jal area taxon, a peccary, potentially expanding the faunal list of Morgan and Harris (2015). Likewise, each repository also preserves high-quality specimens, underscoring the value of collection reconciliation. Additionally, notes with fossil material at TVPC document an unexplored site within Monahans State Park and communication with park officials suggest discoveries may be forthcoming.

This study emphasizes the importance of not only curator collaboration and archival research, but the necessity to archive documents associated with all fossil material, such as fieldnotes, photos, and location. Although efforts to integrate national inventories and regional datasets into online platforms are ongoing, the reliance on current aggregated digital archives alone is insufficient for reconstructing legacy faunas. Web access to individual museum and university collection databases is also of high importance, but again the question arises -- where to search?

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410560

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