"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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BivAToL
Dr. Paula Mikkelsen, Associate Director for Science at PRI and its Museum of the Earth is a lead investigator on the BivAToL 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.
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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.
