Targeted Digitization to Expand and Enhance the PALEONICHES TCN
Digitization PEN:Targeted Digitization to Expand and Enhance the PALEONICHES TCN
Project Summary
The invertebrate and plant fossil collections of the University of Texas at Austin document geological research spanning the last 150 years. These four million fossils range in age from Precambrian to the Holocene, encompassing critical intervals of geologic time and geographic areas and certain well-studied organisms. Such huge collections are of little value unless the objects along with related documentation, images, and analytical data are digitized and made globally accessible. This project will connect digital data from these UT collections to institutions that are part of the Paleoniches TCN and ultimately to the national data resource (iDigBio.org). The geologic "deep" time slots that have been selected are the Cambro-Ordovician, Pennsylvanian and Paleogene-Neogene. The major groups of organisms will be brachiopods, echinoderms, and molluscs. The digital record will link the specimen's scientific name to its collection site and geological time period. The collection site will be recorded in current and deep time geography, thus allowing the researcher to examine organisms from the perspective of distinct "plate" configurations. High quality multi-focus imagery with digitally embedded scales will provide researchers with a functional image that can be analyzed in open source software. The final data resource will provide a more robust database for future analytical studies on a broad range of topics within the history of life.
This data set will make visible long-term effects of major global changes in the distribution, migration, and extinction of organisms. Using a web interface that will allow for mobile platforms, this rich geological record will become available to researchers, educators, and the general public. The project will provide training for students. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (https://www.idigbio.org).
Current Research
Not available at this time
Project Leadership
Project Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
Principal Investigators (PIs): Ann Molineux (PI), James Sprinkle (Co-PI)
NSF Award Number
Project Website
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Project Collaborators
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