Geology Collection

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The geology collection includes numerous specimens of fossils and minerals with an emphasis on Arkansas.

It includes more than 12,000 rock and mineral specimens, such as the Hugh D. Miser Collection consisting of 5,725 Arkansas and Brazilian quartz crystals. An alumnus of the University of Arkansas, Miser worked as a staff geologist for the United States Geological Survey. Beyond rocks and minerals, the Museum also holds a mixture of North American and European invertebrate, vertebrate, and plant fossil specimens. Highlights include a Pleistocene mammoth found near Hazen, Arkansas in 1965, the Arkansas State Dinosaur Arkansaurus fridayi, and a 180 million-year-old fossil crocodile from Germany.

The UA Tree-Ring Laboratory also utilizes the Museum as a repository for their tree-ring samples. The samples hold valuable data for environmental history.

Research Publications

Providing researchers access to the collections has long been an important responsibility for Museum staff. For transparency of collection usage and to give back knowledge accumulated over years, especially in relation to indigneous cultural materials, we have compiled a list of publications produced as a result of research conducted at the Museum. View it here. For organization purposes, the list is divided between two tabs located at the bottom – Cultural and Natural.

While we strive to collect publications from all researchers who have utilized the collections, this list is not complete and will continue to grow over time. If you know of additional publications that should be added or have questions about the list, please contact us.