I am fascinated with the potential for what paleontology collections can tell us about biodiversity and ecological changes through time. I wish to understand the quality of museum collections as snapshots of the history of life. My approach to paleontology and collections management combines understanding taphonomic and collecting biases. This approach raises the questions of
- Is the fossil record a good representation of what used to be alive?
- Are museum collections a good representation of the fossil record?
- How does the representational quality of museum collections vary from museum to museum?
Well-organized and databased collections are imperative to answering these questions. As such, I'm always striving for improving collections and making collections available to researchers on a global scale.
