PaleoBase

PaleoBase is a new initiative in the presentation of systematic information on fossil organisms. It represents the marriage of up-to-date systematic information on a collection of over 1500 fossil genera, state-of-the-art color digital photographs of representative specimens from The Natural History Museum’s unrivaled paleontological collections, and modern relational database technology. With PaleoBase an important new tool for the teaching of life history in a wide variety of advanced secondary, undergraduate and graduate courses (e.g., paleontology, historical geology, stratigraphy, paleoceanography, paleobiogeography) becomes available to students and educators alike.<br /> <p><i>PaleoBase: Macrofossils</i> is the first product from the PaleoBase project, and will be released in three Parts. It will consist of approximately 1000 generic records drawn from the major invertebrate groups. The genera have been carefully selected to include taxa used in the teaching of paleontology and historical geology worldwide. Together they represent the ideal fossil collection; one that in practice only the largest natural history museums could hope to assemble. <i>PaleoBase: Macrofossils</i> gives educators, students and researchers access to a virtual collection of these fossils – many of which are actual figured specimens from the 19th and 20th century technical publications that served to originally establish the concepts of these genera.<br /> </p> <p>For an online demonstration and guided tour of <i>PaleoBase: Macrofossils</i> please visit: www.paleobase.com/<br /> </p> <p>For an information brochure, or for any queries, please e-mail paleobase.support@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com<br /> </p> <ul> <li style=”list-style: none”><br /> </li> <li>Versions for Mac and PC, single user and site licence.<br /> </li> <li>High-quality digital images of representative specimens in full color that can be magnified to reveal additional morphological detail.<br /> </li> <li>Complete systematic descriptions incorporating the latest information and written by experts from The Natural History Museum’s Department of Palaeontology.<br /> </li> <li>A morphological key for each group that can be used to study morphological character distributions or aid in the identification of “unknown” specimens from local collections.<br /> </li> <li>A complete classification for each genus.<br /> </li> <li>Descriptions of the genus’ geographical and paleogeographical distribution.<br /> </li> <li>A summary of each genus’ chronostratigraphical distribution.<br /> </li> <li>Identification of each genus’ original shell mineralogy.<br /> </li> <li>A complete glossary of all morphological terms used in the genus’ descriptions.<br /> </li> <li>A complete bibliography that connects the information provided by Macrofossils to the larger technical literature.</li> </ul>