The Panama Paleontology Project is a group effort to document the effects of the emergence of the southern Central American isthmus on shallow-water faunas and waters of the Caribbean Sea and tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. Begun in 1986 by Jeremy B. C. Jackson and Anthony G. Coates (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), the PPP has been funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Our main supporting institution has been the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Republic of Panama, and much of our collecting and research has been conducted in the country of Panama. Our collecting permits have been granted through STRI by the government of Panama, Recursos Minerales department. The main goals of the PPP have been to collect fossils from ancient deposits on both sides of the isthmus, document their ages and localities, and use them in research that addresses evolutionary, biogeographic, geologic and environmental changes through time. The PPP has included dozens of researchers who have actively used the fossil collections and information it has stimulated. 

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. BSR90-06523, RII-9002977, DEB-9300905, DEB-9696123 and DEB-9705289. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

For other research related to the PPP, the following links may be of interest: