The addition of this collection to PRI's permanent holdings will allow for new research collaborations between PRI staff and colleagues at other institutions and for scientific visitors to PRI to use these collections for their research. It will also allow PRI to create an online exhibition of the Zinsmeister collection to share these unique specimens with the public that will highlight its importance for discussions of climate change, evolution, and extinction.
"This collection is important for two reasons," stated Dr. Gregory Dietl, Director of Collections at PRI. "The first is that it includes samples from one of the best K-T boundary sections in the world (the time interval when dinosaurs became extinct). Recent discoveries from Seymour Island are challenging the view that the K–T extinctions were caused solely by a catastrophic asteroid impact. Instead, a prolonged interval of decline in diversity, prior to the impact event at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago, is evident from the fossil record on Seymour Island. These data suggest that more protracted changes in the Earth’s climate may also have been important. The second reason this collection is important is that it can help us understand the effects of current climate change on marine communities in Antarctica. Today global warming is enabling crab predators to reinvade Antarctica, after being excluded from the region following the onset of a cooling event in the Eocene some 40 million years ago. Scientists are trying to understand how the indigenous fauna will respond to such changes. The collection’s strength during this critical interval in the history of the Antarctic region provides unique information to addressing this problem."
The Zinsmeister collection is full of amazing fossils. Most notable is the heteromorphic ammonite (Diplomoceras), which is related to the living nautilus (pictured below with Judith Nagel-Myers, Collections Manager at PRI). One Diplomoceras specimen measures about 6 feet in length and resembles a saxophone. "It boggles the mind," stated Dr. Dietl. "It makes one wonder how did that organism live; was it able to swim? Most ammonites could swim, but this specimen makes you wonder."
PRI’s collection of fossils is one of the largest in North America. Over the course of the next several years PRI will begin the process of making the Zinsmeister collection publicly available. By making this collection available to researchers, students, and educators, the institution is furthering its more than 75-year mission that was started by Gilbert Harris in 1932.
The Paleontological Research Institution is an active research institution located in Ithaca, New York and was founded in 1932 by Gilbert Harris, professor of geology at Cornell University, to house his collection and library. PRI has outstanding programs in research, collections, publications, and public outreach. The Institution cares for a collection of 2-3 million specimens (one of the 10 largest in the U.S.), and publishes the oldest paleontological journal in the Western Hemisphere (Bulletins of American Paleontology, begun in 1895). In 2003 PRI opened the Museum of the Earth on its campus on Ithaca's West Hill, overlooking Cayuga Lake. This education and exhibits facility contains 8000 square feet of permanent exhibits, telling the history of the Earth and its life through the geologic record of the Northeastern U.S. Unique elements include the skeletons of the Hyde Park Mastodon and Right Whale #2030 and the 544 square foot mural, Rock of Ages Sands of Time. The Museum builds upon PRI’s wide variety of programs and activities for people of all ages.
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