Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: The Cretaceous World: Digitizing Fossils to Reconstruct Evolving Ecosystems in the Western Interior Seaway

六千五百万年前到一亿年前，也就是恐龙在地球上行走的时期，一条巨大的热带海道覆盖了现在北美的中部地区。这条海道充满了海洋生物。蜗牛和蛤蜊生活在海底；鹦鹉螺和巨大的沧龙、蛇颈龙、鲨鱼和鱼一起游来游去；与此同时，早期的鸟类和翼龙漂浮在海面上或在海面上飞行。今天遗留下来的是古生物学家收集了100多年的大量化石记录。这一时期和地区的著名化石在世界各地的博物馆展出。然而，从这个地区收集的大量化石被锁在博物馆的抽屉里。为了向科学家和公众提供这些化石及其相关数据，该项目建议将这一时期和地区的无脊椎动物和脊椎动物化石数字化，使信息可以通过可搜索的电子数据库访问。此外，将开发各种在线资源来说明和描述这些化石并绘制它们的分布。将制作免费的在线古生物学教科书，并开发网站和应用程序，以突出组成物种的外观，发生和年龄，帮助学生和有抱负的古生物学家识别和了解这些化石。该项目计划为K-12教育制作各种课程材料，包括免费下载的化石3d扫描和教室使用的3d打印模型。该项目的产品还将包括聘请科学教师的讲习班，以及增加参与机构的公共项目和展览的物品。这项工作将大大增加美国八大博物馆化石收藏的科学价值。博物馆的藏品包含了大量的数据，这些数据对研究海洋物种在长期的温室气候条件下迁移、灭绝和进化的原因很有用，类似于我们的星球可能很快就会经历的温室气候条件。这些数据对于评估全球变化已经并将继续影响地球上的生命具有相关性。在西部内陆航道曾经占据的地区，从数千个地点收集的大约16.4万个标本将被建立数据库并进行地理参考。大约1500种微化石、无脊椎动物和脊椎动物的代表将被成像。这些数字化的记录将通过各个博物馆的数据库、iDigBio和iDigPaleo在网上提供。由此产生的数据将使科学家能够回答关于在生命史的关键时期，面对环境变化，不同物种如何相互作用和生态系统如何变化的问题。此外，这些数据将非常适合用于各种现代定量工具，包括古生态位模型（古enm），并将有助于改进古气候和古海洋学模型。最后，将培养几名本科生和研究生。项目结果将在以下网址上公布：www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org。

Between 65 and 100 million years ago, during the time that dinosaurs walked the earth, a large, tropical seaway covered the central part of what is now North America. This seaway teemed with marine life. Snails and clams lived on the seafloor; ammonites, along with giant mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks, and fish, swam about; at the same time early birds and pterosaurs floated on or flew above the seaway. What remains today is a prolific fossil record that has been collected by paleontologists for over 100 years. Notable fossils from this time period and region are on display at museums around the world. However, the vast bulk of fossils collected from this region are locked away in museum drawers. To provide scientists and the general public access to these fossils and their associated data, this project proposes to digitize invertebrate and vertebrate fossils from this time period and region, making information accessible through searchable electronic databases. Additionally, a variety of online resources illustrating and describing these fossils and mapping their distributions will be developed. A freely accessible online textbook of paleontology will be generated and a website and App will be developed to highlight the appearances, occurrences, and ages of constituent species, to help students and aspiring paleontologists identify and learn about these fossils. The project plans to generate a variety of curricular materials for K-12 education, including 3-D scans of fossils for free download and printed 3-D models for classroom use. Products of this project will also include workshops to engage science teachers and items to augment public programs and exhibits at participating institutions. This work will greatly increase the scientific value of eight major U.S. museum collections of fossils. The museum collections contain large amounts of data useful for studying what causes marine species to migrate, go extinct, and evolve during a long period of greenhouse climate conditions similar to those our planet may soon experience. These data have relevance for evaluating how global change has and will continue to affect life on earth. An estimated 164,000 specimens collected from thousands of locations, in the region once occupied by the Western Interior Seaway, will be databased and georeferenced. Representatives from each of roughly 1,500 microfossil, invertebrate, and vertebrate species will be imaged. The digitized records will be made available online via individual museum databases, iDigBio, and iDigPaleo. The resultant data will enable scientists to answer questions about how different species interact and ecosystems change in the face of environmental shifts during a key time in the history of life. Moreover, the data will be ideal for use with an assortment of modern quantitative tools -including paleoecological niche modeling (PaleoENM) - and will help improve paleoclimate and paleoceanographic models. Finally, several undergraduate and graduate students will be trained. Results of the project will be published at the following url: www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org.