Wyoming museum’s fossil collection is going digital

LARAMIE, Wyo. – A Wyoming museum and library plan to make digital files of thousands of mammal fossils, hoping to increase access to the information for researchers and the public.

The University of Wyoming Geological Museum and Coe Library are working together on the effort.

Wyoming Public Media reports that the museum has room to display less than 1 per cent of its rare fossil mammal collection. The rest of the collection is available for research but only about 100 people a year are able to view other specimens.

Museum and Collections Manager Laura Vietti says the project will create digital records of more than 5,000 specimens from the collection, including examples from the period before and after dinosaurs went extinct.

The museum hopes to make the first images available in a year.