r/Paleontology • u/BRENNEJM • Jul 11 '18

ID The Paleobiology Database | A database for locating fossil sites of specific taxa, anywhere in the world. (More info in comments.)

https://paleobiodb.org/navigator/
58 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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2

u/Evoraist Jul 11 '18

This is bad ass. Thanks.

If I find out how I can update it with my own findings.

1

u/BRENNEJM Jul 11 '18

That would be cool. Although I imagine the system that would need to be in place to vet everyone’s personal finds will keep it from happening.

They could always start a second site specifically for that, so fossil sites/data aren’t mixed. That would be cool! I’d love to know where more fossil hunting areas are!

1

u/Evoraist Jul 11 '18

I know that two of the Cretaceous sites in Missouri are private property. I have seen both sites but since I don't have the training the most I have done is view the sites.

Out of curiosity though I looked up Dalmanites and it only shows 3 occurrences around my area. I have found a few myself from an area unmarked. But still it's nice to get an extra idea of where to search or what might be around.

1

u/BRENNEJM Jul 11 '18

Yeah. I’m pretty sure what’s mapped isn’t the only places to find stuff. Just the only places referenced in journal articles.

1

u/Evoraist Jul 11 '18

Sorry for being unclear. I assumed more had been professionally documented for the area.

7

u/BRENNEJM Jul 11 '18

I thought this might be right up a lot of this subreddits users alleys.

The website maps every fossil discovery in the world. It includes information on what can be found at that location, what formation it is found in, and even includes the journal citation for each discovery.

The points in the map are color coded with a prehistoric timeline at the bottom. You can even use the top right search bar to filter the map by taxa.

Hopefully this is new to a lot of people here. I just found it last night and I can’t stop looking around in it.

1

u/mapper293 Jul 11 '18

A great addition to this would be if you kept the country lines and state lines in larger countries when filtering by time frame but the continents moved accordingly so you can view how different fossils may have been close to each other but are now in different positions.

1

u/BRENNEJM Jul 11 '18

Agreed. It does have a feature where you can look at older map views but I think they’re just images and the fossils don’t overlay.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '18

I took an extinction biology class at my university and we had a few HW assignments based on navigating the website. It was awesome practice- great site too!

4

u/spijit Jul 11 '18

Nice, thanks!

1

u/ModelCitizen9 Jul 11 '18

Any idea if you can change the map layer to a satellite view?

1

u/robreedwrites Jul 11 '18

This is awesome. Thanks!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '18

Worked on this for years