"Research is our middle name"
For more than 75 years, scientists at PRI have been pursuing primary research in numerous areas of paleontology. Much of this research has focused on fossil and modern mollusks from the southeastern United States, Caribbean, and Latin America, and PRI is known around the world for the excellence of its research, collections, and publications in this area. More recently, research by PRI staff has expanded to include work on the abundant Devonian marine invertebrates and Pleistocene mastodons of New York State, as well as the general fields of evolutionary paleobiology and macroevolution. PRI researchers include five PhD-level staff who pursue work on a wide variety of topics in addition to their administrative work for the Institution. PRI staff also support and advise work by graduate and undergraduate students at Cornell University.
Spotlight on Research at PRI
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REU in Biodiversity
Dr. Gregory P. Dietl, Director of Collections at PRI and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, is co-principal investigator, with Dr. Patricia H. Kelley from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on a Research Experiences for Undergraduates program in Biodiversity Conservation. This program, which brings together a multidisciplinary group of students and faculty, compares fossil, archeological and modern marine samples to study how the marine ecosystem in the Carolinas has changed through time.
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BivAToL
Dr. Paula Mikkelsen, Associate Director for Science at PRI and its Museum of the Earth, is a lead investigator on the "BivAToL" (Bivalve Assembling the Tree of Live) project. She, along with colleagues from The Field Museum, Harvard University, and other institutions are working to reconstruct the evolutionary origins of the largest animal phylum in the sea and the second largest on the planet -- Bivalve Mollusks. For details, please see the BivAToL Website. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation.
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Mastodons at the Museum
Since August, 1999, PRI, in conjunction with Cornell University, has been involved with three mastodon excavations, one in Hyde Park, NY and another (Cornell's Gilbert Mastodon) in Chemung County, NY. Now, a third mastodon has been located in North Java, NY, and excavations are underway.
