About The UCMP Collections Catalog    University of California Museum of Paleontology
 
 

This catalog has information on localities and catalogued specimens held by the University of California Museum of Paleontology. Currently, there are 534,973 specimens and 111,820 localities in this catalog.


Scope

The scope of this catalog is limited to UCMP records that have been catalogued and digitized. The museum has many specimens that are not yet catalogued but are available for research. In addition, some data maintained by the UCMP are not available on-line but are available to qualified researchers by request. For more information about the holdings of the museum, visit UCMP's collections pages.


Notice and Disclaimer

UCMP data records may be used by individual researchers or research groups, but they may not be repackaged, resold, or redistributed in any form without the express written consent of the UCMP director or designate. Please read the entire notice and disclaimer before using UCMP data.


About the system

This system uses the Apache Web server running on Red Hat Linux, the mySQL database with the Perl DBI module, along with in-house Perl scripts. The HTML query forms access Perl programs which create an SQL (Standard Query Language) query to the database, deliver the query, and process the results, creating a new web page to display the records that matched. This system is based on other systems developed by the the BSCIT group of the Berkeley Natural History Museums, such as CalPhotos, the Essig Museum of Entomology, and AmphibiaWeb.

Records in the results set link to other resources such as the CalPhotos database and the BerkeleyMapper. Queries are issued to "live" data -- new catalog record are added to the same database that is used for queries, and updates to records are immediately accessible. However, some data is not made available via the public web forms. Qualified researchers can make arrangements with the UCMP collection managers to gain access to this data.


Searching the UCMP Collections Catalog

Data availability varies across the Vertebrate, Invertebrate, Microfossil and Paleobotany sections of the museum. In general, available datasets include collecting information (when the specimen was collected and by whom); taxonomic information (may include class, order, family, genus, subgenus, species, and status), locality information (age and location of the site), and citation information.

Specimen search
Use the simple or advanced specimen search forms to search for information on catalogued specimens, or browse a list of taxonomy. Related locality records are linked from specimen records, as are photos, where available.

Locality search
Use the locality search form to retrieve information about localities where UCMP specimens have been collected, or browse the list of localities by country or U.S. states. Related specimen records are linked from locality records where available. Note that there are thousands of locality records for which there are no catalogued specimens, particularly in the invertebrate and microfossil collections. If you are interested in a particular geographic region, a locality search may be more fruitful than a specimen search.

Photo search
Access photos in the UCMP on-line image collection using this form. These images are linked with related specimen and locality records, and are also accessible through CalPhotos.


Credits

The original web-based catalog search interface was developed through a collaboration between the UCMP and the UC Berkeley Digital Library Project (DLP). Members of the development team were Ginger Ogle and Joyce Gross Programmers, DLP, Colleen Whitney Webmaster, UCMP, Diane Erwin, Pat Holroyd, David Haasl and Ken Finger Museum Scientists, UCMP.

The BerkeleyMapper mapping application, added in June 2004, was developed at the Berkeley Natural History Museums (BNHM). John Deck and Colleen Whitney adapted the display to meet the needs of UCMP.

In 2006, the UCMP database was re-engineered to enable full on-line access to the UCMP catalog for queries as well as for collection management. This new system was designed and developed by Programmer Ginger Ogle from the BSCIT group in the Berkeley Natural History Museums and by UCMP Museum Scientists Diane Erwin, Pat Holroyd, David Haasl and Ken Finger, and UCMP Assistant Director Mark Goodwin.

 
Please read the UCMP copyright notice and disclaimer before using UCMP records in analyses or reports.

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