Abstract
Surfing fossil biodiversity data on the World-Wide Web; the Neogene marine biota of tropical America (NMITA) database
Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America, Vol.29(6), pp.103-104
Geological Society of America, 1997 annual meeting
1997
Abstract
Interactive, image-based databases on the World-Wide Web have the potential to revolutionize research in paleontology. The reliability of any survey of biodiversity through geologic time depends heavily on the consistent identification of taxa. Comparisons with well-illustrated syntheses of taxonomic and distributional information are an essential component in this process. Application of World-Wide Web technology to biodiversity studies is illustrated by a new biotic database, entitled Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America ("NMITA") (http://nmita.geology.uiowa.edu). NMITA contains high-quality images and synoptic information on taxa collected as part of two large multi-taxa fossil sampling programs designed to document changes in marine biodiversity in tropical America over the past 20 million years: (1) the Panama Paleontology Project (PPP) of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and (2) the Dominican Republic (DR) project of the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Information is currently available for corals, bryozoans, gastropods, and ostracodes. By selecting the name of a taxon on a taxon list, users may obtain images of representative specimens of the taxon at assorted magnifications as well as conventional information on its authorship, synonyms, diagnostic morphologic characters, type specimens, and spatial and temporal distribution. All character data are linked to illustrated glossaries of morphologic terms, and character matrices are provided for higher taxonomic categories. The taxon list may consist of an all-inclusive systematic inventory, or it may be generated using various image-based search tools involving: (1) morphologic characters, (2) geographic location, and (3) stratigraphic position and geologic age. In these searches, users may provide morphologic data to receive a list of all taxa possessing selected character states, or they may select areas on maps and stratigraphic columns to receive taxon lists for specific locations and horizons. NMITA can then be used to generate character and occurrence matrices for selected combinations of taxa and localities, which can be input into other standard software packages for subsequent data analysis.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Surfing fossil biodiversity data on the World-Wide Web; the Neogene marine biota of tropical America (NMITA) database
- Creators
- Ann F Budd - University of IowaCharles T FosterJulia GoldenJohn P DawsonJennifer L ChidseyHelena Fortunato
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America, Vol.29(6), pp.103-104
- Conference
- Geological Society of America, 1997 annual meeting
- Publisher
- Geological Society of America (GSA)
- ISSN
- 0016-7592
- Alternative title
- Geological Society of America, 1997 annual meeting
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 1997
- Academic Unit
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984240781402771
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