CDI-Type II: Computational Methods to Enable an Invertebrate Paleontology Knowledgebase

《无脊椎动物古生物学专论》是由一个国际古生物学会联合会于1948年创立的，被认为是无脊椎动物化石数据的最权威汇编。它几乎具有圣经的意义，在每一个好的图书馆都能找到。《人性论》在许多领域都有应用，比如理解进化、研究气候变化和寻找化石燃料。为了最大限度地从这项具有里程碑意义的努力中获益，古生物学界有一种强烈的愿望，希望将这个庞大的古生物数据库以电子形式提供给当前和未来的科学家和外行。提出的研究的目的是通过为科学家提供一个利用从《人性论》中提取的丰富信息的总体框架，促进无脊椎古生物学的知识发现活动。第一个任务是将《人性论》的数据转化为可用的知识。第二个任务是开发用于分析、建模和可视化古生物学数据的计算工具，以促进知识发现。我们拟开发的知识库将在古生物学数据管理中发挥核心作用。它将有助于古生物学家进一步探索未开发的领域，并提出和回答在当前范式下无法解决的研究问题。此外，它将提供一个范式转变，从基于书籍的知识系统，被认为是主流研究的支持证据，提供关于嵌入其中的模式和关系的知识很少，到一个统一的框架，计算分析和建模与知识相结合，开创古生物研究的新时代。因此，该知识库可能会为科学发现带来变革的机会，以帮助理解自然的复杂性。此外，我们将创建的网站将使任何人都能在世界范围内的网络上探索化石的世界，并与堪萨斯大学自然历史博物馆以及他们为K-12学生和公众提供的外展计划联系起来。

The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, founded in 1948 by an international consortium of paleontological societies, is considered to be the most authoritative compilation of data on invertebrate fossils. It holds an almost biblical significance and is to be found in every good library. The Treatise has found applications in many areas, such as understanding evolution, studying climate change, and finding fossil fuels. In order to maximize the possible benefit from this landmark effort, there is a strong desire in the paleontological community to make this vast repository of paleontological data available in electronic form for current and future scientists and laypeople. The object of the proposed research is to facilitate knowledge discovery activities in invertebrate paleontology by providing scientists with a general framework that takes advantage of the rich information extracted from the Treatise. The first mission is to turn the Treatise data into available knowledge. The second mission is to develop computational tools for analyzing, modeling, and visualizing paleontological data in order to facilitate knowledge discovery. The knowledgebase we propose to develop will play a central role in paleontological data management. It will facilitate paleontologists to further explore unexploited areas and to raise and answer research questions that are unsolvable under the current paradigm. Furthermore, it will provide a paradigm shift from the book-based knowledge system, which is perceived as supporting evidence of mainstream research and provides little knowledge regarding the patterns and relationships that are embedded within them, to a unified framework in which computational analysis and modeling are integrated with knowledge to derive a new era of paleontological research. Consequently, the knowledgebase will likely open transformational opportunities in scientific discovery to help understand the complexity of nature. Additionally, the website we will create will enable anyone to explore the world of fossils on the world-wide web, and to link with the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and their outreach programs for K-12 students and the general public.