Thanks to the B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment, we were able to visit the Denver Museum of Natural History as visiting researchers. The Denver Museum of Natural History Collections houses some of the collected Oligocene Beaver Creek flora – our goal was to image and characterize identifiable plant insect interactions excluding detritivory on fossil leaves from this site.
We arrived late in the evening in Aurora, Colorado on Monday, February 3rd. After renting a vehicle, we checked into our accommodations and prepared our lunches for the next day. The next morning, we made a pitstop for coffee and arrived at the Collections at 9 AM.
We set up two microscope stands and got to work identifying and characterizing insect damage. Identification of plant-insect interactions were based on guidelines for recognition of insect damage defined in Shachat et al. 2014. Plant fossils with identifiable damage were set aside for stacked-focus photography where high detail pictures were taken of the damage.
Specimen number, genus, species, location, insect damage type and description, and picture file name were all noted in a spreadsheet. We worked drawer by drawer, continuing until 5:30 PM.
As a Floridian, I was underprepared for the Colorado winter weather. I had to plow through the Denver thrift stores for some warmer clothes after the Collections closed.
By Wednesday, we realized the behemoth of a task we had undertaken and, for our remaining days, we split up our work. Ashley focused on taking pictures and species identification while I focused on characterizing insect damage. During our lunch breaks, we took the chance to explore the DMNH rock collection.
On Saturday, we woke up at 4 AM before our flight back to Florida to squeeze in a sunrise hike. It was my first time walking through snow, though luckily I did not slip as we huffed and puffed our way up and down the mountain.
Thank you to Assistant Curator of Paleobotany Gussie Maccracken, Assistant Collections Manager Nicole Neu-Yagle, and Collections Manager Kristen MacKenzie for hosting us and their assistance in working with the Denver Museum of Natural History Collections.
Gabriela Gaarder is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Geology and a B.A. in Portuguese through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The 2025 Spring Student Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History using funds from the Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowment, B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment, and the Dr. Madelyn M. Lockhart Endowment. If you would like to help support these funds for future student awards, please go to:
Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowment
B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment
Dr. Madelyn M. Lockhart Endowment