University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History (CUMNH) Paleontology section has one of the largest and most historically important fossil terrestrial arthropod collections in the US, with about 95,000 fossil insect and spider specimens, and over 600 insect and spider type and figured specimens. They are the lead institution in the Fossil Insect Collaborative TCN and will serve as the long-term home of iDigPaleo. Their goal over four years is to digitize 74,649 specimens, digitally image 25,000 specimens and georeference 172 localities. The foundation of their collection is rooted in material collected by Theodore Dru Allison Cockerell, Url Lanham, and Sievert Allen Rohwer in the early 1900s from Creede, Florissant, Green River, Latah, and Pitch Pinnacle Formations, as well as, Cockerell’s fossil insect collections from Argentina and Siberia. New field based collections, consisting of over 70,000 specimens, made by David Kohls from the Green River Formation make up the majority of newer acquisitions. A large collection of over 3,400 fossil insects and spiders preserved in copal and amber from Madagascar, Colombia, and the Baltics are also part of the collection.