Saving a Lost Ecosystem

Restoring and Exploring the Exceptionally Preserved Fossils of the Cleveland Shale

(Late Devonian) 

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research Program

This project is funding the conservation of the Museum's Cleveland Shale (~360 MYA) collection, which includes vertebrate, invertebrate, and paleobotany specimens. The iconic large armored fish Dunkleosteus shared Northeast Ohio's ancient sea with many other fish and early sharks. The Cleveland Shale also preserves land plants that washed in from neighboring Pennsylvanian coasts. This collection contains a wealth of information regarding the early evolution of jawed fish and the Late Devonian extinctions that disrupted life in the seas. However, this collection is susceptible to pyrite disease, which threatens its conservation and preservation. The funding from this grant has supported the outfitting of a climate-controlled storage space specifically for this collection. Low-humidity conditions will protect the specimens from the spread of pyrite disease and ensure their conservation for generations to come.