Written by Nathan Nazario ’26, Academy Event Host & Student Researcher
There’s a lack of historical evidence, literature and overall materials when it comes to representing Latin America and South America in museums. What I study at Drexel University is the history of science, specifically about Latin America. And as I worked as a co-op in various collections throughout the Academy, I discovered some overlooked specimens — this is their story.
So, let’s start at the beginning. Axel A. Olsson was a geologist and paleontologist who studied at the Academy, as well as the Paleontological Research Institute in Ithaca, NY. His main area of study was with Cenozoic mollusks, a group of invertebrates that includes snails and clams who lived in an ancient ice age.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, Olsson created his own catalogs for all his fossil specimen collections, but unfortunately, they have really no clear labels. I decided to decode his writing and look through this collection to find out what it means and where it all comes from.
This work of deciphering led me to the Academy’s Archives. I was intimidated, but soon discovered it was a treasure trove of information. Comparing materials and notes, I noticed very quickly that every specimen had a number attached to it. I found an archival folder, and within that, it showed many different numbers that represented different locations, suggesting that each number corresponds to a different location.
The places I at first discerned were Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia. Now it was time to officially connect the location data to the specimens and properly catalog them all.
When it comes to South America, there’s not a lot of work being done on it. And so, even though this organizational work may seem tedious, to have something in the database and something accessible for people to use on South American materials is truly helpful and important.
So, what do we do? We use a standardized biodiversity spreadsheet to carefully catalog the specimens. The Olsson numbers are associated with locality, rock type, geological age and then any specimen data. This is ongoing work, and we hope to make this more accessible and make it worldwide soon.
After cataloging 922 lots, large and little white boxes, of multiple different specimens in the Invertebrate Paleontology Collection, we could see the biodiversity of South America throughout the millions of years. The greatest amount of fossils that we found, the most common in this collection, came from Peru, with over 250 specimens from that single location.
Other important locations were Ecuador and Colombia. Some outliers and some smaller numbers that we found were from Venezuela, Panama, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. Argentina just had one specimen.
The types of specimens we found were also interesting. We found 350 bivalves, 316 gastropods, 23 cephalopods, like ammonites, and five echinoderms.
Overall, my love of history and my desire to find out the history of these specimens created this project, which has deepened and enriched my fascination with the natural world. In the future, when people look at this collection, they could find out all the scientific knowledge about the fossil specimens, and now, also the history behind it and how it got here and what South American countries are represented in the collections.
You can support the Academy’s research efforts to understand the natural world and inspire everyone to care for it by becoming a member or donating to our scientific collections.
Tú también puedes apoyar los proyectos de investigación de la Academia, y así ayudar a entender y proteger la riqueza natural convirtiéndote en miembro o haciendo una donación a nuestras colecciones científicas.