The largest collection of fossilized dinosaur footprints in the world, in one of the smallest museums in the country, will be completely moved next summer, from the University of Colorado Denver to CU-Boulder.
The museum collection includes tracks from 20 different countries, from all prehistoric ages and in sizes from tiny (as small as crow's feet) to large (wider than an elephant foot), including a Tyrannosaurus Rex print.
2,700+ specimens will be carefully moved by a contractor who specializes in the transport of valuable and fragile objects. Work such as this need not be rushed, and the move, which started last summer, will be complete by next summer.
Used for research by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the museum has a mission "to protect and preserve the fossil resources and serve as an educational tool for the university, and has dutifully done so for nearly 12 years. The museum staff often lends its expertise to organizations around the world.
The museum also has nearly 700 produced publications, many contributed by students around Denver who have used the museum for their studies and have visited for class trips.
The advent of the move is also marked by the retirement of the museum's director, Martin Lockley, Ph.D. His career has spanned 30 years, and his expertise is sought out for assistance and guidance in proposals to preserve fossil sites and historic landmarks.
In a press release, Dr. Lockley stated, "Before I started, there was a misconception that fossil footprints were rare and not very useful, but it turns out they're very abundant and very useful. Fossil footprints represent the living animal, so we get a lot of information about behavior that we wouldn't get from bones."
attribution: UC-Denver press release
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