THE ANTARCTIC FOSSIL VERTEBRATE COLLECTION OF THE MUSEO DE LA PLATA: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF FOUR DECADES OF EARTH SCIENCES INVESTIGATIONS IN ANTARCTICA

The Museo de La Plata (MLP, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata) houses Antarctica’s largest fossil vertebrate collection. This collection is a major international research resource and constitutes one of Antarctica’s most important records of vertebrate history and evolution. The principal focus of this collection is on vertebrate fossils from the Antarctic Peninsula (Late Cretaceous and Paleogene of the James Ross Archipelago, NE Antarctic Peninsula and the Jurassic of the Antarctic Peninsula). The collection is estimated to consist of over 32,000 specimens, including fossils of fishes, anurans, marine reptiles (plesiosaurs and mosasaurs), avian and non-avian dinosaurs, turtles, and marine and terrestrial mammals. The collection comprises many complete and extraordinarily well-preserved skeletons and has 22 holotypes. It also contains several institutional icons, including the skeletons of the elasmosaurid plesiosaur Vegasaurus and several non-avian dinosaurs such as Antarctopelta and Trinisaura, as well as non-avian dinosaurs Vegavis and Conflicto. The MLP Antarctic fossil vertebrate collection dates from 1978; its importance lies not only in the fact that it is globally one of the main reference collections of Antarctic paleontological material but also in its high proportion of Mesozoic and Cenozoic faunas, which can be used to understand evolutionary dynamics, continental movements, and climatic changes over the past 80 Ma. The collection was made under the auspices and agreement between the Dirección Nacional del Antártico - Instituto Antártico Argentino and the Museo de La Plata in 1983.