Paleobiology Database

The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms.

History

The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Paleofaunal Database initiative, which operated from August 1998 through August 2000. From 2000 to 2015, PBDB received funding from the National Science Foundation. PBDB also received support form the Australian Research Council. From 2000 to 2010 it was housed at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis,^[1] a cross-disciplinary research center within the University of California, Santa Barbara. It is currently housed at University of Wisconsin-Madison and overseen by an international committee of major data contributors.

The Paleobiology Database works closely with the Neotoma Paleoecology Database, which has a similar intellectual history, but has focused on the Quaternary (with an emphasis on the late Pleistocene and Holocene) at timescales of decades to millennia. Together, Neotoma and the Paleobiology Database have helped launch the EarthLife Consortium, a non-profit umbrella organization to support the easy and free sharing of paleoecological and paleobiological data.

Researchers

Partial list of contributing researchers:^[2]

Martin Aberhan, Museum für Naturkunde
John Alroy, Macquarie University
Chris Beard, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Kay Behrensmeyer, Smithsonian Institution
David Bottjer, University of Southern California
Richard Butler, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie
Matt Carrano, Smithsonian Institution
Fabrizio Cecca, Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University
Matthew Clapham, University of California, Santa Cruz
Bill DiMichele, Smithsonian Institution
Michael Foote, University of Chicago
Austin Hendy, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Steve Holland, University of Georgia
Wolfgang Kiessling, Museum für Naturkunde
Charles R. Marshall, University of California, Berkeley
Alistair McGowan, University of Glasgow
Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati
Johannes Müller, Museum für Naturkunde
Mark Patzkowsky, Penn State
Hermann Pfefferkorn, University of Pennsylvania
Ashwini Srivastava, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany
Alan Turner, Liverpool John Moores University
Mark D. Uhen, George Mason University
Loïc Vilier, Université de Provence
Pete Wagner, Smithsonian Institution
Xiaoming Wang, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Robin Whatley, Smithsonian Institution
Scott Wing, Smithsonian Institution

Institutions

Partial list of contributing institutions:^[3]

Criticism

Donald Prothero has shown that for several Cenozoic mammal families, range data in the PBDB are exaggerated due to uncritical inclusion of mistaken data.^[4]

References

^ "National Center for Ecological Analysis, an overview". Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
^ Reference for contributing researchers
^ "Reference for contributing institutions". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
^ Prothero, D. (2015). Garbage in, garbage out: The effect of immature taxonomy on database compilations of North American fossil mammals. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 68, 257–264.

External links

"The Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 2010-04-08.

[1] "National Center for Ecological Analysis, an overview". Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2014-05-20.

[2] Reference for contributing researchers

[3] "Reference for contributing institutions". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2014-05-20.

[4] Prothero, D. (2015). Garbage in, garbage out: The effect of immature taxonomy on database compilations of North American fossil mammals. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 68, 257–264.

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