ammonites

The International Paleobiology Database Symposium

Berlin, 13 - 14 March 2003

Museum of Natural History, Humboldt University, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany

An enormous amount of data has been gathered by paleontologists over the last 200 years. Compiling all this information into a global database would provide an invaluable framework for the analysis and interpretation of evolutionary patterns. Earlier compilations of observed taxon ranges already have demonstrated the great value of paleontological databases. However, most earlier databases lack direct information on fossil localities, including (paleo)geographic coordinates, paleoenvironments, taphonomy, and lithological contexts.

The Paleobiology Database project aims to compensate for this shortcoming by providing collection-based occurrence data for fossils of all taxonomic groups, geological ages, and geographic regions. This NSF-funded project involves an international team of more than 60 researchers from all paleontological subdisciplines. Our database currently contains nearly 300,000 taxonomic occurrences stored in a relational online database (http://paleodatabase.org). We expect this number to increase greatly over the next few years.

The first international symposium on paleobiology databases aims to:

  • Provide an overview of contemporary paleontological databases, including the Paleobiology Database and others
  • Show how currently available data have been used in innovative paleobiological analyses
  • Raise consciousness in Europe about paleontological databases
  • Get database-friendly European colleagues involved in the Paleobiology Database project
  • Discuss future research strategies
The symposium is entirely open to the public. Members of the Paleobiology Database and invited European researchers will present their research in 30 minute talks. At the end of the symposium we will have a round table discussion of Paleobiology Database members and interested European colleagues.

There is no registration fee - everyone is welcome to attend.

If you have any questions please contact the organizers:

  • John Alroy [alroy@nceas.ucsb.edu]
  • Wolfgang Kiessling [wolfgang.kiessling@museum.hu-berlin.de]

PROGRAM

Session I: Databases and diversity

Thursday, 13 March, 1:30 - 5:00 PM

1:30 - 2:00 PM
John Alroy, University of California, Santa Barbara
What, if anything, drives extinction rates? Clues from fossil mammals"

2:00 - 2:30 PM
Lars Werdelin, Swedish Museum of Natural History
"The NOW Database: towards a geographically resolved history of climate and land mammal evolution in the Eurasian Neogene"

2:30 - 3:00 PM
David Harper, University of Copenhagen
"From PALSTAT to PAST: Development of data-analysis packages for palaeontologists"

3:00 - 3:30 PM
Coffee break

3:30 - 4:00 PM
Michael Foote, University of Chicago
"Using the Paleobiology Database to study origination and extinction in the fossil record"

4:00 - 4:30 PM
Charles Marshall, Harvard University
"The Paleobiology Database, CHRONOS, and placing the Cambrian radiation in a rigorous temporal framework"

4:30 - 5:00 PM
Round table discussion

Session II: Phylogeny, taxonomy, and taphonomy

Friday, 14 March, 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
8:30 - 9:00 AM
Mike Benton, University of Bristol
"Databases, dinosaurs and tests with phylogeny"

9:00 - 9:30 AM
David Jablonski, University of Chicago
"Testing the Pull of the Recent and the problem of taxonomic consistency in large databases"

9:30 - 10:00 AM
Thomas Steuber, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
"A taxonomic database of rudist bivalves (Mollusca, Hippuritoidea) - Structure of data and examples of palaeobiological interpretations"

10:00 - 10:30 AM
Coffee break

10:30 - 11:00 AM
Mark Uhen, Cranbrook Institute
"What we can learn about vertebrate evolution by creating and mining databases"

11:00 - 11:30 AM
Roy Plotnick, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Round up the usual suspects: why are some taxa ubiquitous?"

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Sue Kidwell, University of Chicago
"Quantifying the quality of the fossil record"

Session III: Paleoecology, paleogeography, and biogeography

Friday, 14 March, 1:30 - 5:00 PM
1:30 - 2:00 PM
Hallie Sims, Smithsonian Institution
"The evolution of within-community land plant diversity"

2:00 - 2:30 PM
Peter Wagner, Field Museum of Natural History, and Matt Kosnik, University of Chicago
"The effects of distributions on sampled richness"

2:30 - 3:00 PM
Wolfgang Kiessling, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and Franz Fürsich, Universität Würzburg
"Paleogeographic diversity patterns through the Phanerozoic as recorded in the Paleobiology database"

3:00 - 3:30 PM
Coffee break

3:30 - 3:45 PM
Jürgen Kullmann, Universität Tübingen
"GONIAT - a paleobiological database system designed for research on systematics and evolution"

3:45 - 4:00 PM
Dieter Korn, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
"GONIAT and Permian ammonoid evolution and biogeography"

4:00 - 4:30 PM
Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati
"Using the PBDB to evaluate transitions in the geographic ranges of Paleozoic marine genera"

4:30 - 5:00 PM
Round table discussion