History: Page 3 - Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory

Dr. Wann Langston, Jr., formerly Curator at the National Museum of Canada joined The University of Texas in 1969 to become the second Director of the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory. At that same time, VPL was transferred to the administrative umbrella of the Texas Memorial Museum. Dr. Langston directed the first major phase of computerization of our collections under the auspices of a National Science Foundation grant. With his students, he also built a major collection of fossil vertebrates from Cretaceous rocks of Big Bend National Park, and he acquired teaching and research materials from all over the world. He was also responsible for taking on the orphaned collection from Texas A&M University. Dr. Langston and his students published extensively on Permian and Mesozoic reptiles, and on the geology of associated sediments. Included among the many discoveries made by Dr. Langston and his students was the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi, the largest flying creature known, from late Cretaceous rocks in Big Bend National Park. This was one of the most significant and noteworthy paleontological discoveries of the 20th century. VPL became a separate administrative unit during Dr. Langston's tenure. Dr. Langston was also responsible for the establishment of an endowment to supplement the Lab's operating budget, and for tremendous growth of its excellent library. He directed VPL until his retirement from the University in 1986. Dr. Langston remains an active researcher and continues to participate in field work.

Dr. Ernest Lundelius, Jr. became the third Director of the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory in 1986. Dr. Lundelius was an undergraduate at The University of Texas at Austin and he had worked with Dr. Wilson in the late 1940s to assemble the collections that had become scattered across the University, and so he was a part of the Lab from its inception. Dr. Lundelius and his students amassed very large collections of Quaternary vertebrates from the American Southwest. Dr. Lundelius also made a large and significant collection of Holocene vertebrates from Australia, where he had been a Fullbright Fellow. As VPL Director, Dr. Lundelius continued the effort to computerize collections records and he installed new cabinetry under another National Science Foundation grant. He also directed a two-year long $600,000 building repair project. This slowed all collections activity considerably, but lab operations resumed thereafter. Dr. Lundelius retired from the University in 1998, but he remains an active researcher and he continues to work with students and to do field work.