Range charts are the critical limiting factor for biostratigraphic resolution. High-resolution biostratigraphy requires detailed local range charts that resolve the first and last appearances of numerous fossil species with centimeter precision. Unless the fossil collecting is also extraordinarily thorough, range charts underestimate the full length of taxon ranges and miss rare taxa altogether. High precision involves collecting fossils from thin rock intervals and recording precisely the stratigraphic separation of these intervals. Thoroughness has two components: 1) collecting at many stratigraphic levels; and 2) processing enough rock at each level to find the local highest and lowest occurrences of both the abundant taxa and the rare taxa.
This chapter explores options for using rich, but loosely documented, museum collections to test and augment range charts from more precisely measured stratigraphic sections. After reviewing the types of essential information that range charts contain, we categorize museum specimens according to the aspects of this information that they can augment. Then we turn to computer-assisted methods of combining the information from museum collections and measured sections.
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Webster, M., Sadler, P.M., Kooser, M.A., Fowler, E. (2008). Combining Stratigraphic Sections and Museum Collections to Increase Biostratigraphic Resolution. In: Harries, P.J. (eds) High-Resolution Approaches in Stratigraphic Paleontology. Topics in Geobiology, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9053-0_3
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