Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA

The Museum of Paleontology at the University of California in Berkley, California was created with the idea of research and education. The museum allows students and other visitors to learn about the earth's geology, history, and biodiversity. The museum is housed in the Valley Life Sciences Building. It was designed by Arthur Brown JR.

The building was established in 1921 and currently its director is Roy Caldwell. Though the museum was primarily based around research, some of the collections are on display. Much of the building is not accessible to the public though. The limited collection does give an idea of what the place is about, and funding is offered through the state and other programs based on the university. To really see the collection one must be a part of the life sciences or other sciences dealing with paleontology. The museum building is also used for storing fossils collected statewide. Much of the collection was gathered during 1860 and 1867 during the California Geological Survey.

For those who are interested in the collections there are online photos at the U of California Museum site. One can tour more of the museum online than when they visit. There have been many famous individuals who have worked at the UCMP. John Marriam, Charles Camp, William Matthew, Ruben Stirton, Samuel Welles, Bruce Clark, Donald Savage, and Joseph Gregory have all been associated with the museum.

The museum is mostly open to those who are performing research and visiting researchers. The collections include microfossils, invertebrates, vertebrates, paleobotany specimens, and historical archives. The museum draws paleontologists, biologists, and geologists around the world, each year. Under the microfossil collection are 200,000 slides with more than 10,000 different specimens. They include calcareous nannofossils, radiolarians, diatoms, palynomorphs, and conodonts to name a few of the specimens.

Within the invertebrate collections are 15,000 specimens and over 500,000 mollusks. Many of the specimens are from fossils that come from more than ten thousand locations. Some of the research from this collection has been published regarding where they were found, and what was discovered about them. A lot of data has been collected and stored in the archives for researchers.

The vertebrate collection is just as diverse as the other holdings. A lot of the pieces are Devonian from locations around the globe. For example Triassic vertebrates from western North America are held at the museum. This includes Cretaceous dinosaurs and mammals from such places as Montana and Wyoming. Some of the holdings are from the Paleocene to the Pleistocene era of the western US. For example these specimens have arrived from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits. Tertiary Australian Marsupials, Miocene Faunas from Colombia, and Pleistocene cave fauna from South Africa are also part of the vertebrate collection.

Paleobotany is mostly based on fossils of plants. This means algae, fungi, and other plants of the long ago eras are on display and in the collection. They have over 33,000 different specimens for researchers to explore and enjoy.