USGS/NAU Macrobotanical Laboratory Collection

Paleoecological, stratigraphic, archaeological, and modern ecological studies often require identification of small plant parts. The collection of the macrobotanical laboratory houses fossil and recent plant specimens that are typically between 1/2 to 20 mm in size (seeds, leaves, flowers, twigs). The laboratory also serves as a repository for fossil packrat middens and other types of fossil plant deposits. This repository contains fossil plant assemblages extracted from approximately 700 fossil packrat middens collected by numerous researchers over the last 30 years. Most of the midden collections of Kenneth L. Cole, W. G. Spaulding (QSPWGS), Jim I. Mead, Arthur M. Phillips, Peter Koehler, Larry Coats, and of many NAU students are kept in the repository. The repository contains the most complete collection of fossil packrat middens from the Colorado Plateau and Mojave Desert.

The plant macrofossils from the middens are identified through comparison with reference specimens from over 3000 modern plant collections also housed in the repository. Digital images of many specimens, especially seeds, are available online in the USGS Macrobotanical Digital Library. The collection can also be searched using BECBase, NAU's online collections database, where these collections are called NAU QSPMBL and NAU QSPWGS.

Curation and digitization of the collection are funded through the USGS while the collection is housed by NAU. These collections are used to support ongoing research projects by NAU faculty and students as well as USGS scientists.