Collaborative Research: Geoinformatics: Facility: Paleobiology Database: Preserving and Presenting Ancient Data for Future Research

古生物学数据库（PBDB）是一个开放获取的社区管理资源，包含近150万化石的时间和地理分布、分类分类和相关书目信息。PBDB已经成为回答诸如“在我家后院发现了什么化石”、“生物多样性是如何随时间变化的”和“大规模灭绝的驱动因素和后果是什么”等问题的首选数据资源。PBDB拥有网络基础设施，允许在教育、商业和研究网络、移动和分析应用程序中访问和使用数据。该项目将开发和部署新的最先进的机器阅读和学习工具，以自动完成从已发表的科学论文和报告中查找和提取pbdb相关数据过程中的关键步骤。其主要目标是减少目前查找和输入新数据所需的专家时间和精力的高昂成本。自动阅读和学习工具将主要集中于古生物学和分类学文献。然而，这种新的机器阅读和人工智能系统，能够定位和提取专业信息，并自动化数据库建设的关键步骤，将解决在科学和工业领域具有深远应用的一般网络基础设施挑战。该项目将促进自然地质资源特征的研究，改进地层对比和古地理重建，校准分子钟，促进对现代和古代环境变化影响的古生态评估。该项目将建立首个人工智能驱动的管道，将快速增长的数字图书馆和计算基础设施（称为GeoDeepDive）与PBDB用户的大型专家社区连接起来。这将作为为其他用户社区部署其他此类管道的模板。作为这一过程的一部分，pi将完成PBDB数据采集应用程序接口（API）的开发和部署，这将使PBDB数据输入工作流程现代化，并使第三方应用程序的开发能够用于输入和编辑特定的PBDB数据类型，如分类意见和分类数据。这可能会降低参与PBDB数据输入和编辑过程的障碍，从而增强未来PBDB增长和改进的众源模型。该项目由地球科学部的地球信息学和沉积地质学和古生物学项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) is an open access, community-curated resource containing information on the temporal and geographic distribution of almost 1.5 million fossil occurrences, their taxonomic classification, and associated bibliographic information. The PBDB has become the go-to data resource for answering questions such as, “what fossils are found in my backyard”, “how has biodiversity changed over time,” and “what are the drivers and consequences of mass extinctions?” The PBDB has cyberinfrastructure that allows data to be accessed and used within educational, commercial, and research web, mobile, and analytical applications. This project will develop and deploy new state-of-the-art machine reading and learning tools to automate key steps in the process of finding and extracting PBDB-relevant data from published scientific papers and reports. The primary objective is to decrease the high cost of expert time and effort that is currently required in order to find and enter new data into the system. The automated reading and learning tools will primarily focus on paleontological and taxonomic literature. However, this new machine reading and artificial intelligence system, which is capable of locating and extracting specialized information and automating key steps in database construction, will address a general cyberinfrastructure challenge that has far-reaching applications across science and industry.This project will facilitate research that characterizes natural geological resources, improves stratigraphic correlation and paleogeographic reconstructions, calibrates molecular clocks, and facilitates paleoecological assessments of the effects of modern and ancient environmental change. The project will establish a first-of-its-kind, AI-driven pipeline that would connect a rapidly growing digital library and computing infrastructure, called GeoDeepDive, to the large expert community of PBDB users. This will serve as a template for deployment of other such pipelines for other user communities. As part of this process, the PIs will complete development and deployment of the PBDB data acquisition application program interface (API), which will modernize the PBDB data entry workflow and enable the development of third-party apps designed for entering and editing specific PBDB data types, such as taxonomic opinion and classification data. This will likely lower the barrier for participation in the process of PBDB data entry and editing, and thus enhance a crowd-source model for future PBDB growth and improvement.This project is jointly funded by the Geoinformatics and the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology programs in the Division of Earth Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.