CONDON COLLECTIONS

The museum houses an exceptional paleontological collection, which illustrates Oregon’s deep history in fossils of many types and ages. Vertebrates and plants from the John Day region in the eastern part of the state are famous worldwide, while invertebrates and marine mammals from the coast are found in numerous localities, where they record the dynamic environments of the past. The foundation for the natural history section at the museum was established by the specimens collected by Oregon’s pioneering geologist Thomas Condon during the 1860s. Today, the professionally-curated Condon Collection provides a unique look into Oregon’s geologic history. Photographs, field notebooks, a library, other archival documents, and comparative biological specimens augment and enrich the facility.

Ranking twelfth in the United States in number of fossil vertebrates, the Condon Collection includes some 100,000 specimens that are made available to visiting scholars and geology students for research. A program to enter these specimens into a database for easy access and retrieval was begun 15 years ago, and more recently a digitizing program was initiated. Museum staff and volunteers are currently digitizing the most important elements of the collection. With this effort, we hope to share our fossil wealth with researchers and interested members of the public. The historic Thomas Condon collection has been digitally photographed, along with the important type fossils--a specimen on which a newly-named species is based.

Epitonium: A snail from the Eugene Formation, found near the University of Oregon.  Circa: 34 million years old.

Notable Fossil Collections:

Thomas Condon Collection: Assembled in the 19th century and curated for over 100 years, this splendid assemblage of plant, invertebrate, and mammal fossils was put together by Oregon’s pioneer in the field.

Guy Pierson Collection: Acquired by the university 10 years ago, this collection consists primarily of late Tertiary marine vertebrates such as seals, sea lions, sharks, and whales.

Earl Packard Collection: Another of Oregon’s early paleontologists, Professor Packard collected whale fossils from the coast along with invertebrates (ammonites) from eastern Oregon, including many rare types.

Microfossil Collection: Microfossils from localities around the world were donated by Guy Rooth, A.D. Warren, and William Orr. These have added significantly to the bio-stratigraphic holdings of the museum.

Greg Retallack Collection: Consisting of several thousand specimens donated to the museum in 2009, Professor Retallack’s collection adds many new and significant taxa from around the world, including numerous specimens from his work in Antarctica.

McMinnville Mammoth Excavation: Late Pleistocene bog site

PALEONTOLOGICAL  RESEARCH 

The acquisition of new paleontological and biological specimens from localities in Oregon and beyond continues to contribute to our growing knowledge of the dynamic geological and ecological history of the Pacific Northwest. In recent years, for instance, Condon Collection staff members have been actively engaged in excavations at several late Pleistocene bog sites near the Willamette Valley communities of Woodburn and McMinnville. Here organic rich silts and peat layers have yielded a trove of bones from elephants (mammoth and mastodon), camels, bison, and rodents, along with the remains of birds, insects, wood, and seeds. This bog setting is unique to Oregon and the west coast.

Miocene sites in Eastern Oregon’s Juntura Basin, collected in the 1960s, are also being reexamined. Rodents and small animal remains from this area are especially useful in determining environmental conditions of the past.