Society for Vertebrate Paleontology Workshop

Neotoma
Paleoecological
Database


http://neotomadb.org

1 Introduction

This workshop is designed to use paleoecological data and associated internet resources to provide participants with the following:

  1. Guidance on best practices in the archiving and analysis of paleovertebrate data

  2. Training in the use of the Neotoma Paleoecology Database (www.neotomadb.org) to archive, access, and analyze paleoecological data.

Neotoma is a multiproxy paleo-database that stores a range of paleoecological & paleoenvironmental data, including vertebrate faunal data. One of the strengths of Neotoma is the ability to compare faunal data with other proxy data such as fossil pollen, diatoms, ostracodes, insects, charcoal, and geochemical data. In addition, the database is structured to relate absolute dates to taxon occurrences and to allow the creation and storage of age models built on absolute dates from stratigraphic sections. Neotoma is a public-access, community-supported database that is emerging as the standard repository for Pliocene and Quaternary paleoecological data.

More teaching materials can be found in Neotoma’s educational resources.

2 Finding Data

2.1 Explorer

2.1.1 Getting Started

This is what you see when you’re in the right place.
  1. Go to http://www.neotomadb.org/ and click on the ‘Explorer’ picture, or navigate directly to the Explorer App
  2. Pan (by dragging), or change the zoom so that your window is centered on North America, including all of the lower 48 states and the southern half of Canada.

2.1.2 Tips and tricks

  1. Show/Hide Search Results
    1. You often accumulate many search layers - it may be getting a bit confusing. Find the icon that lets you show/hide/combine search layers and use it to hide or delete some of your searches.
  2. Rename searches
    1. Searches from the “Basic” search window are automatically named, but not “Advanced” searches. Add names for your searches as you go at the bottom of the Search dialog

2.1.3 Search for Data

2.1.3.1 Finding sites

  1. Find a known site
    1. Using the Search dialog window (Advanced tab, Metadata subtab, Site Name field), find the classic Guilday site “New Paris #4”.
      1. Note: Search doesn’t like the # symbol, so search for “New Paris”, which should return two sites: New Paris #2, and New Paris #4
    2. Once you’ve performed the search, click on the point that appears. A window will pop up with some information about this record.

QUESTION 1: What is the latitude and longitude of New Paris #4? What is the Site ID?

  1. Explore sites by geography
    1. Using the Search dialog window (Advanced tab), first choose “dataset type = vertebrate fauna” at the top
    2. Then, in the Space subtab, click “Search by extent”
    3. Click the “Extent” dropdown menu and search by shape, select the rectangle, then draw a rectangle on the map in your chosen region of North America

QUESTION 2: How many total sites are found in that region?

  1. Find all sites produced by a researcher
    1. Search Window, Advanced Tab, Metadata subtab, Person Name field
    2. Find all sites produced by Ernie Lundelius

QUESTION 3: In which states has Ernie worked?

2.1.3.2 Find a Taxon