scholarly journals Bringing Back the Buzzing of the Bees: Enhancing the Discovery of Fossil Insect Collections with the ePANDDA API

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26496
Author(s):  
Austin Hendy ◽  
Lindsay Walker ◽  
Erica Krimmel ◽  
Jocelyn Sessa
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Fossil Insects ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Fossil Insect ◽  
Bibliographic Records ◽  
Research And Education

The enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API (ePANDDA) project (NSF ICER 1821039) has developed an application programming interface (API) to integrate online paleontological and neontological databases, including the Paleobiology Database, iDigBio, and iDigPaleo. This connectivity provides a synthetic resource of information on all aspects of specimens, taxa, and localities. Here we present a case study that demonstrates how the ePANDDA API is being utilized to aid the digitization and dissemination of natural history collections, connect relevant disassociated data, and create added value to each of those resources. The Invertebrate Paleontology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA) is presently contributing data to the NSF-funded Fossil Insect Collaborative TCN (http://fossilinsects.colorado.edu). A cornerstone of the “Fossil Insects of L.A.” contribution (NSF DBI 1702342) is the historic Georg Statz Collection of fossil insects from the Rott Formation (Oligocene) of Germany. This collection of spectacularly preserved compression fossils was extensively described between the 1920s and 1940s, creating a comprehensive published record, which has been entered into the Paleobiology Database. Several thousand specimens of Statz’ collection, including over 900 type specimens, left Europe in the 1950s to be permanently reposited at the NHMLA. While important to their long-term conservation, this move has hampered collection access by the research community. The ePANDDA project will be able to link specimen record data hosted in iDigBio with bibliographic and taxonomic data reposited in the Paleobiology Database. In addition, programmatic development of the Paleobiology Database now allows for the tracking of fossil occurrences at the resolution of individual specimen records, and better documents the institutions with which those specimens are reposited. Therefore, images of NHMLA specimens, together with historic photographs, drawings, and annotations, will be discoverable through the Paleobiology Database and associated with the bibliographic records within which they were originally described or listed. Seamless search and discovery among these online resources enriches the potential of the historic Statz collection and augments its value for both research and education. We anticipate greater visibility of this and other NHMLA collections as a result of creating such linkages.

scholarly journals Leveraging Collective Experience to Digitize the Fossil Insects of Los Angeles

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26385
Author(s):  
Lindsay Walker ◽  
Erica Krimmel ◽  
Jann Vendetti ◽  
Austin Hendy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fossil Insects ◽  
Test Case ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Fossil Insect ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
La Brea Tar Pits ◽  
Rancho La Brea

The Invertebrate Paleontology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA) has received support from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF DBI 1702342) to digitize the museum’s unique and historic collection of 28,000+ fossil insects. The primary goal of this project, “Fossil Insects of L.A.”, is to increase access to these collections for both research and education. Key collections to be become discoverable through iDigBio and iDigPaleo include the Georg Statz Collection (Oligocene, Rott Formation, Germany) and three faunas from Southern California: Barstow (Miocene), Rancho La Brea (Pleistocene), and McKittrick (Pleistocene). Fossil Insects of L.A. constitutes the final contribution to the Fossil Insect Collaborative Thematic Collections Network (TCN), a consortium of institutions that have been digitizing the largest fossil insect collections in the United States. As a project beginning at the tail-end of the TCN’s active funding, Fossil Insects of L.A. is actively leveraging existing TCN knowledge and resources to streamline workflows and efficiently achieve project goals. In addition to basing imaging and preservation protocols on those designed by TCN partners, Fossil Insects of L.A. is using a layered approach to provide high-quality taxonomic information without sacrificing the pace of specimen digitization. Previously unidentified specimens are initially identified only to Order, allowing them to quickly continue through the digitization process; specimens can then be re-examined by experienced project participants and external experts, who are able to reference the specimen images generated during digitization. A critical and novel aspect of this component of the project’s workflow is the concurrent digitization of the literature associated with the Statz Collection. These data will be used as a test case for the "Enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API" (ePANDDA) project (NSF ICER 1821039), which seeks to associate related datasets found in iDigBio, iDigPaleo, and the Paleobiology Database. Fossil Insects of L.A. will digitize and make 10,960 specimens publically available online, of which over 6,200 will include images. An additional 15,684 specimen records from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits will also be included in the data mobilization. In doing so, Fossil Insects of L.A. intends to dramatically enhance the research potential of these formerly hidden collections, as well as synthesize and demonstrate digitization best practices generated through the TCN.

A new species of Chama (Bivalvia, Chamidae) from Mexico

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2446 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
PAUL VALENTICH-SCOTT ◽  
EUGENE V. COAN
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Natural History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Santa Barbara ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Mollusk Fauna ◽  
California Academy ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

While preparing a review of the bivalve mollusk fauna of the Panamic Province, we encountered a conspicuous, colorful species of the genus Chama Linnaeus, 1758, that could not be identified with any named species. After examining type specimens at The Natural History Museum, London (BMNH), the United States National Museum of Natural History (USNM), the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (ANSP), the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM), and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH), we have concluded that this species is new to science.

scholarly journals James Hamilton McLean: The master of the Gastropoda

Zoosymposia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-43
Author(s):  
LINDSEY T. GROVES ◽  
DANIEL L. GEIGER ◽  
JANN E. VENDETTI ◽  
EUGENE V. COAN
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Current Status ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Type Information

A biography of the late James H. McLean, former Curator of Malacology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is provided. It is complemented with a full bibliography and list of 344 taxa named by him and co-authors (with type information and current status), as well as 40 patronyms.

Mold Removal and Rehousing of the Ichthyology and Herpetology Skeletal Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Copeia ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. Thacker ◽  
Richard F. Feeney ◽  
Neftali A. Camacho ◽  
Jeffrey A. Seigel
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Skeletal Collections
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document