The orphaned USGS Menlo Park collection is now housed at the UC Museum of Paleontology! All of the USGS localities have been added to the UCMP database. All USGS Menlo Park locality ledgers have been scanned and are available to researchers.
The collection is cataloged as locality lots and is stored biostratigraphically. The material from some localities has been sorted, and in some cases identified, taxonomically. However, as the specimens are not cataloged, these identifications are generally not searchable.
UCMP locality numbers beginning with the prefix “IP” have been assigned to each locality, with the original USGS numbers listed in the “Other Locality Number” field. You can search for localities by their USGS number. Choose “Invertebrates” under “Collection” and enter the USGS number in the “Other Loc Num” field.
If a locality lot has been photographed, you will see a camera thumbnail next to the record. You can also search all project photos here.
The USGS Menlo Park collection consists of fossil material curated out of US Geological Survey offices in Washington, DC, Denver, CO, and Menlo Park, CA. You can tell which office the specimens were curated out of based on the locality number.
- USGS Mesozoic 630 or USGS Cenozoic 6064 (no letter prefix)
Curated out of the Washington, DC, office of the USGS, located for many years at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Duplicate numbers exist between Mesozoic and Cenozoic localities. In the UCMP database, locality numbers are listed as either “Cenozoic” or “Mesozoic”. - USGS Mesozoic M8870 or USGS Cenozoic M9779 (“M” prefix)
Curated out of the Menlo Park, CA office of the USGS. M1 through M999 were assigned to localities of any age. Beginning with M1000, duplicate numbers exist between Cenozoic and Mesozoic localities. In the UCMP database, locality numbers are listed as either “Cenozoic” or “Mesozoic”. - USGS Mesozoic D11010 (“D” prefix)
Curated out of the Denver, CO office of the USGS. Very few of these are present at UCMP.
For more information on this collection, contact the invertebrate collection manager.