Although the term "museum" usually evokes a vision of long
halls lined with exhibits, UCMP is more like a library representing
more than a billion years of life on Earth. It is an active center of
research, housing one of the nation's largest fossil
collections as well as state-of-the-art facilities for the study
of these fossils.
Fields of Research
UCMP research focuses on fields related to paleontology, including systematics and evolution of protists, plants and animals; biostratigraphy; paleoecology; paleoceanography; paleobiogeography; and paleoenvironmental analysis. This research has taken faculty and staff to all corners of the globe check out some of our research localities. Browse individual faculty web pages for more specific information on current research interests, or visit our Information Exchange page to find out more through publications and on-line discussions.
UCMP research is supported by state-of-the-art facilities. The Museum
has laboratories for activities including fossil preparation, molding
and casting of fossils, histological studies of fossil bone, and molecular
analysis. Visit the links below for information on specialized
facilities available to UCMP researchers.
The Samuel P. and Doris Welles Research Fund promotes research on the Museum's collections, particularly those of Mesozoic vertebrates from the Colorado Plateau and others on which he worked. Visit the Welles Fund pages for more information.
Archived Research Data
Browse supplementary data sets from published papers by faculty, staff, and students affiliated with UCMP.
Research Based Exhibits
Many of UCMP's on-line
exhibits draw upon paleontological research conducted by faculty
and graduate students. You can start by exploring this sampling of exhibits: