The Florida Museum’s Paleobotany Collection includes about 250,000 specimens, ranging from the Proterozoic to the Pleistocene.* It is international in scope, with collections from more than 50 countries.

The strengths are Cretaceous to Eocene of the U.S. western interior, Cretaceous and Eocene of southeastern North America, Eocene to Miocene of the Pacific Northwest, and Pennsylvanian of Indiana and Illinois. These collections support investigations of the evolutionary, ecological and biogeographic history of various major plant groups as well as studies of biotic response to climatic change over geologic time.

Exhibit Objects

Significant Collections

Type and Figured material

Holotypes and other specimens which have been figured or cited in the literature are maintained in special cabinets. With more than 5,100 specimens, this collection includes 1,500 microscope slide preparations of fossil woods, leaf cuticles and pollen/spores, as well as hand specimens housed in 15 cabinets.*

The John W. Hall Paleobotanical Collection

This special collection, transferred from the University of Minnesota, includes about 20,000 paleobotanical specimens with emphasis on the Pennsylvanian of North America and is important for research and teaching about plants of the coal ages.*

Thomas J. Bones Collection

This collection includes Eocene fossil fruits, seeds and woods from the vicinity of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon. This collection, including about 10,000 specimens, provides detailed information on the subtropical plants that populated eastern Oregon 47 million years ago.*

David and Sue Jarzen Palynological Collection

This important reference collection includes more than 4,000 slides of modern and fossil pollen grains mounted on glass microscope slides, prepared from the stamens of modern flowers and from fossiliferous sediments from many areas of the world, with a special emphasis on North America and Australia.*

Systematic Collection (Cretaceous-Tertiary angiosperms)

This collection includes large numbers of well-preserved fruits and flowers as well as leaves and wood, which are studied to address questions of phylogeny, paleogeography and paleoclimate.

Modern Reference Collections

The modern reference collections includes about 6,600 specimens of modern leaves, more than 2,600 specimens of fruits and seeds, and nearly 5,900 pollen slides available for comparative studies.*

*Collection numbers were accurate at the time the exhibit was on display in 2017. Please visit the collection website or collection database for updated holdings information.