Feb. 2, 1998 Contact Ross West (541) 346-2060 Editor's note: Bill Orr can be reached Feb. 3-5 at (541) 346-4577. The anonymous collector described below is retiring due to health complications and is not available for interview. EUGENE--An anonymous private collector has donated a "spectacular" collection of fossils to the Thomas Condon State Museum of Fossils at the University of Oregon, museum director William Orr announced today (Feb. 2). "This collection is truly spectacular. It provides a remarkable window into Oregon's pre-history," says Orr, who also is a UO geology professor emeritus. He said the collection is "very large and highly significant. When all the bones are analyzed, we will have a much clearer picture of life in Oregon waters during the Tertiary period between 30 and 15 million years ago." Among the most prized specimens in the collection is the splendidly preserved remains of a sleek needlenosed dolphin with rows of finely pointed teeth. Comparable in size to a modern porpoise, this highly adapted predator was able to catch even the speediest of fish, Orr explains. The bulk of the collection's specimens are bones from marine mammals such as whales, sea lions and seals. An extensive group of non-mammalian fossils from animals such as mollusks and crabs rounds out the collection which numbers, in total, in the thousands of specimens. "With this acquisition," says Orr, "the Condon Museum collection is nicely balanced between terrestrial land mammals (mostly from the fossil-rich John Day Formation in eastern Oregon) and marine mammals of roughly the equivelent age." Known in the paleontological community for his superb and painstaking work in preparing fossils by carefully extracting them from the surrounding rock, the Newport, Ore., collector specialized in marine vertebrate remains ranging from fish to reptiles, although he focused primarily on whales, porpoises and seals. He also made his records and field notes available to the museum. "Only very rarely do private collectors gain an international reputation for their fossils, but this collector has earned such a reputation," Orr notes. With this museum accession, which is structured as a permanent loan to the state, the fossils will be available for study by students and local and visiting scientists and for viewing by visitors to the museum located in the basement of Pacific Hall, 1210 Frlanklin Blvd. The Condon Museum, the only professionally curated collection of its kind in Oregon, ranks 12th in the United States in numbers of specimens of curated fossil vertebrates. The collection's 70,000 specimens represent the largest collection of fossil vertebrates in the Pacific Northwest. The Thomas Condon State Museum of Fossils at the University of Oregon is available for group tours. Call (541) 346-4577 for information. -30- #F-7325/Local, Special