University launches new
paleontology research center

The future looks bright for those interested in the ancient fossil heritage of Montana, the Rocky Mountain region and the world.

The state Board of Regents recently approved a new UM Paleontology Center, which includes an associated Fort Peck Field Station amid the fossil-rich Cretaceous formations surrounding Fort Peck and Glasgow.

Organized under UM’s Department of Geology, the new center and field station will promote paleontology education and research and serve as a repository for important fossil discoveries. It also will boost public outreach in paleontology.

“This should put UM on the map for being a center of excellence for paleontology,” said George Stanley, a UM geology professor and director of the new center. “It also could help revitalize the economy of the Fort Peck area.”

UM formed a partnership with Fort Peck Paleontology Inc. to create the new center. FPPI is a nonprofit organization formed by eastern Montana residents to promote study and research of the area’s spectacular fossils, including dinosaurs, plants and invertebrate remains. The organization focuses on preparing, molding and casting large fossils.

Stanley said FPPI members contacted him two years ago about creating a connection between their respective organizations.

“We are very appreciative of the decision of the Board of Regents and excited that (UM) will have a Paleontological Research Center here at Fort Peck,” said John Rabenberg, president of Fort Peck Paleontology, which oversees the operations of the Fort Peck Paleontology Field Station. “We have been working toward this goal since we started the project in 1996. With the assistance of Two Rivers Economic Growth, the dedication of the board of directors at FPPI, and many volunteers, it is finally a reality.”

Stanley said a five-year plan is in place to get the center up and running. The Fort Peck Field Station will be housed within FPPI in a 7,000-square-foot former laundry building used during the 1933-40 construction of Fort Peck Dam.

The new field station will run during the summer, when it will house visiting students and faculty members participating in digs and fossil preparation. Stanley also envisions an ecotourism program in which paying “volunteers” — along with UM students — uncover and discover the past.

“It’s a paleontology wonderland out there,” Stanley said, “filled with fossil vertebrates and plants, as well as invertebrate life. Our No. 1 goal is to get the field station going. It might be next summer, as these things take time, but by 2007 we should have an actively running summer field station. I want to get high-quality students and prominent paleontologists from around the country and world involved in the new center and also in the activities of the field station.”

Jon “Tony” Rudbach, UM associate vice president for research and economic development, said the new center has received $50,000 in “seed money” from a grant to get started.

Rudbach said the center will be competitive for grants and other funding. Money also can come from ecotourism and private donations, and FPPI generates revenue by selling castings of fossil discoveries from the area. Stanley said an FPPI replication of “Peck’s Rex” — one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever found — could fetch more than $150,000.

Stanley said the new center already includes a vital resource — UM’s paleontology research collection founded in 1898 and housed in the basement of the Clapp Building on campus. The collection already contains a diverse assortment of 100,000 plant, vertebrate and invertebrate specimens and has formed the basis of more than 300 scientific publications. The new center also includes 900 square feet in preparation labs, as well as office space and computers dedicated to paleontology research.

Another important component of the center will be a “museum without walls” — an electronic database and Web site that will support research, education and distance-learning.

Rudbach, who works to expand Montana’s economy, hopes the new field station provides something of a boost to the Fort Peck area.

“I think people out there realize that the fossil treasures in their area are more valuable than any crop they can grow,” he said, “and they want to take advantage of it.”