Micropaleontological Reference Centers (MRCs) 
Michael Knappertsbusch, Natural History Museum Basel, Switzerland
Located at sites around the world, the JOIDES DSDP/ODP Micropaleontological Reference Centers (MRCs) provide scientists with an opportunity to examine microfossils of various geologic ages and provenance from all
oceans and over the past 140 million years.

The collections cover four microfossil groups--calcareous nannofossils, foraminifers, radiolarians, and diatoms--selected from sediment cores obtained from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and its successor, the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). Material has so far been chosen and prepared from Legs 1-164, and material from Legs 165 through 181 is currently being prepared. Each Centre carries identical sample sets.

This wealth of deep-sea material is providing scientists with important information on global history and giving paleontologists a great amount of new biostratigraphic data. It is the primary goal of the Centres to preserve such prime material from important levels for reference purposes for both present and future investigators.

MRCs have also been designated by ODP as the locations where research material from DSDP/ODP cruises, when no longer required or being worked on, can be deposited alongside the collections. The research 
material will then be made available for future workers instead of becoming  lost or inaccessible to the scientific community. Such reference collections are important in order to maintain reproducibility in case of revisions or updates of scientific results.

A home page for the MRCs exists at:
"http://www-odp.tamu.edu/mrc/mrcpage.HTML" with information about the purpose, collection holdings, and facilities of the MRCs, names, addresses, phone and fax numbers of the MRC curators and listings of the foraminifer and diatom samples stored at the MRCs.

For more information about any Reference Center, or to schedule a visit, contact the Supervisor at the locations listed on the MRC home page.

For further information please contact  Dr Michael Knappertsbusch, Lead Curator of the MRCs, or one of the MRC curators.

Dr. Michael Knappertsbusch
Lead Curator of JOIDES Micropaleontological Reference Centers
Natural History Museum Basel
Augustinergasse 2
4001-Basel
Switzerland

Tel. No.: +41-61-266 55 64
Fax No.: +41-61-266 55 46
E-mail: Michael.Knappertsbusch@unibas.ch
Homepage: http://www.unibas.ch/museum/nmb/24_MUS/T/knappertsbusch.htm

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