| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 17, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 17, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1651208 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Reed Beaman
rsbeaman@nsf.gov (703)292-7163 DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 8, 2016 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $41,915.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $41,915.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1259 TRUMANSBURG RD ITHACA NY US 14850-1313 (607)273-6623 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NY US 14850-1313 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Digitization |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Museum collections of fossils, along with their associated locality data, provide millions of records representing data on the temporal and geographic distribution of species in deep time. However, to reach their greatest scientific potential, these collections data need to be available on-line and in a format that facilitates quantitative biogeographic analyses. We will enter information about the age and precise location of fossil specimens from parts of several key paleontological collections into electronic databases. During this process improvements to computer programs for collections will be enhanced to allow paleontological specimens to be integrated with modern specimen data, thereby benefiting research on distribution of organisms over time. Our efforts will digitize nearly 450,000 specimens belonging to 900 species from several museums throughout the U.S. and will focus on three different time periods in the history of life: the Ordovician, Pennsylvanian, and Neogene. We will create on line digital atlases illustrating and describing these fossils and providing maps showing where they can be found. We will also create an 'app' so these atlases can be used on handheld devices out in the field.
The museum collections and fossils provide large amounts of data useful for studying what causes species to migrate, go extinct, or evolve over long time periods. They are of great relevance for considering how global change has and will continue to affect life on this planet. Our study will make these data available on line and accessible to scientists, facilitating many scientific analyses. The on-line and portable device digital atlases will be useful for educating amateur paleontologists and K-12 students about fossils both in classrooms and in the field. We will also provide training to students and scholars. 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 (iDigBio.org).
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The most significant goal of the San Jose State University/Paleontological Research Institution portion of the PaleoNiches TCN project was to generate two new, free online field guides to fossils to help amateur collectors, teachers, and their students identify and learn about fossils from two large regions. The first website is the Pennsylvanian Atlas of Ancient Life: Midcontinent United States (http://pennsylvanianatlas.org/); it details the fossil records of over 270 ocean-dwelling animals (including brachiopods and trilobites) that lived from Texas to Iowa 323 to 299 million years ago. The second website is the Neogene Atlas of Ancient Life: Southeastern United States (http://neogeneatlas.net/); this website focuses on over 650 animal species (including beautifully-preserved shells of clams and snails) that lived along the eastern coast of the United States (Florida panhandle to Maryland) from 23 million years ago to the present day. Both websites were developed under the banner of a project called the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life (project homepage: http://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/). A third PaleoNiches TCN Digital Atlas was created by project participants at Ohio University; it focuses on Ordovician-aged (485 to 444 million years ago) fossils from the Cincinnati region of Ohio and is called The Digital Atlas of Ordovician Life (http://www.ordovicianatlas.org/).
Information about the Neogene Atlas website was presented at two scientific meetings; additionally, an open access article about the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life project was published in 2015 and may be freely accessed at this website: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2015/1269-commentary-digital-atlas-of-ancient-life.
A second major project goal was to use the Digital Atlases to create new lesson plans and curricular materials to help students learn about ancient life forms and the ways in which scientists analyze them. Three exercises related to the Neogene Atlas were developed. The "Species Diversity and Classification" exercise was developed for elementary-aged students and encourages them to study the appearances of fossils and, based on their features, classify them into different groupings. The "Species Across Time and Terrain" exercise was developed for middle school-aged children. In this exercise, students learn that fossil species vary across both geological time and across regions. A third exercise called "Neogene Mollusk Communities" was developed for college-level students (or advanced high school students) and involves analyzing information about where particular fossils are found to determine how ancient communities varied from location to location. Additional curricular exercises for elementary and middle school students were developed by project participants at Ohio University. All of these curricular materials may be accessed and freely downloaded at this website: http://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/teach/.
The final major project goal was to digitize stratigraphic and geographic occurrence information associated with Neogene specimens from the collections of the Paleontological Research Institution and to add this information to the publicly accessible iDigBio website. Over 1,000 digitized specimen records have been (or soon will be) added to iDigBio.
Last Modified: 09/26/2018
Modified by: Jonathan Hendricks
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