American Museum of Natural History

The AMNH is one of the world's great repositories for comparative biological materials and a leading research center for systematic biology, animal diversity and conservation. It has a unique series of reference and research collections of extant and fossil primates and other mammals that constitute an unparalleled resource available for research by the faculty and students of NYCEP. Research at the AMNH on aspects of Evolutionary Primatology is carried out in the Departments of Anthropology (Tattersall), Mammalogy (MacPhee), Vertebrate Paleontology (Meng, Novacek), and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (Sterling). In addition, the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics (directed by Wheeler and de Salle) undertakes studies on many animal groups using methods applicable to NYCEP research. The AMNH has had a long history of collaboration with Columbia, and more recently CUNY and NYU, in graduate training. Many curators are adjunct faculty members at these and other universities, sometimes teaching courses at the Museum or at the campuses, as well as supervising the research of selected students. Moreover, a number of NYCEP university faculty (Bock, Delson, Laitman, Rockwell, and Wahlert) are Research Associates (formal staff members) of AMNH departments. Advanced NYCEP students (especially at CUNY) may be allowed to apply for museum fellowship support for dissertation research co-supervised by a curator.

The Department of Mammalogy has one of the most extensive collections of extant primate materials, comprising skeletons, skins and alcohol-preserved specimens obtained from all tropical regions of the world. Such collections form the basis not only for systematic studies, but also for comparative morphological and functional anatomical investigations of extant and fossil primates. The Department of Anthropology at the AMNH has a large human osteological collection and a comprehensive series of hominid fossil casts. The Department of Vertebrate Paleontology possesses an extensive collection of fossil vertebrates of world-wide distribution, including an outstanding sample of Paleogene primates from North America. The VP laboratory has facilities for cleaning, reconstruction and casting of all types of specimens (in which techniques students can be trained). Photographic facilities and advice from expert scientific illustrators are available to advanced students. Each of the departments has excellent research facilities for the study of its collections. In addition, the Microscopy & Imaging Facility offers access in the Museum to a confocal and a scanning electron microscope, while the Molecular Systematics Laboratory offers state-of-the-art facilities in that area. The library at the AMNH houses a superb collection of English- and foreign-language publications, both current and historical, covering all areas of natural history. The exhibition halls and Exhibition and Education departments provide a variety of opportunities for student training.

NYCEP has an AMNH student research facility with nearly a dozen desktop and portable microcomputer systems and workstations, as well as a variety of peripherals, microscope and camera equipment. A major effort in three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and imaging directed by Delson (the NYCEP Morphometrics Group) involves the use of several multi-joint-arm digitizers and a fixed laser surface scanner.

Links:

American Museum of Natural History Home Page
AMNH Research Page
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
Division of Anthropology
Department of Mammalogy
Division of Paleontology
Molecular Systematics Laboratory