The Digital Atlas of Ancient Life: delivering information on paleontology and biogeography via the web

Abstract

The fundamental data of paleontology consist of taxonomically identified specimens of known spatiotemporal provenance that are curated in museum collections. Analyses of these data can lead to insights into biostratigraphy, macroevolution, biogeography, phylogeny, and paleoecology. Although historical collections may contain specimens of vague or indeterminate geographic and stratigraphic position, most paleontologists have recorded these data with a high degree of precision for many years. One challenging problem with using paleontological collections for research, however, is making correct identifications of fossil material at lower taxonomic levels—in particular species, but also at the genus level. One aspect of the challenge is philosophical in nature, and involves the human activity of circumscribing species and higher taxa such that they best approximate biological reality (see Hendricks et al., 2014; Allmon, in press). This activity is the concern of the systematist, who makes such decisions based on expert knowledge of a given group. Another concern—which we focus on here—is practical in nature and has to do with identifying fossil specimens in hand sample and attaining information about the spatiotemporal occurrences of taxa from what may be far-flung museum collections. Short of having in-depth knowledge of a particular group, identifications of fossils at lower taxonomic levels still largely rely upon access to printed literature, such as regional guides (e.g., Linsley, 1994; Petuch, 1994; Feldmann and Hackathorn, 1996; Davis, 1998; Peterson and Peterson, 2008; Wilson, 2014) and systematic treatments (e.g., Hendricks, 2009, 2015; Rode and Lieberman, 2002; Stigall et al., 2014a; Wright and Stigall 2013, 2014), or major compendia such as the Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology (see Selden, 2012). Such literature may be expensive, locked behind journal paywalls, out-of-print, and/or may also contain technical jargon that is inaccessible to nonprofessionals and students, especially those new to paleontology. An additional problem presented by older literature is that it may not reflect current