George E. Phillips

PeerJ Author

Summary

Since 2003, I have been the paleontology curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, Mississippi. The paleo program at MMNS consists of a staff of one (yours truly), and the paleo collections currently (2017) comprises 64,000 specimens of vertebrates, invertebrates (incl. ichnofossils), plants, and rock and mineral specimens from (largely) the Gulf Coastal Plain. The MMNS paleo program was initiated in 1978, when it became a subset of the museum's biological collections. Our biological collections, part of the Conservation & Biodiversity Section, dates back to the WPA days of the 1930s. As for me, most of my research focuses on Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene marine benthic macroinvertebrate communities, although, on occasion, I have a thing or two to say about animals with backbones.

Ecology Evolutionary Studies Marine Biology Paleontology

Past or current institution affiliations

Department of Wildlife and National Parks

Work details

Paleontology Curator

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

October 2003

CONSERVATION & BIODIVERSITY SECTION

The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science biological collections originated in 1935, and currently consist of more than 1,000,000 specimens, representing the largest single reference for Mississippi vertebrate animals, freshwater mussels, and fossil vertebrates and invertebrates in existence. The collections also contain plant specimens, including rare plants and plants collected from bog, prairie, and savanna habitats of Mississippi. These specimens have been collected by agency personnel, non-agency researchers, and the general public in an ongoing effort to document the diversity, geographic distribution, and ecology of both extant and extinct organisms, as well as the conservation status of living plants and animals in Mississippi. Today, these specimens and specimen related data are used to provide biological information to resource managers, conservation biologists, researchers, educators, and the general public.

May 23, 2017

The first reported ceratopsid dinosaur from eastern North America (Owl Creek Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mississippi, USA)

Andrew A. Farke, George E. Phillips

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3342 PubMed 28560100

April 13, 2017 - Version: 2

The first reported ceratopsid dinosaur from eastern North America (Owl Creek Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mississippi, USA)

Andrew A. Farke, George E. Phillips

https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2746v2