NMITA (Phase II): Integrating Interactive Identification Keys, Distribution Maps, and Stratigraphic Columns with the Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America WWW Database

将交互式识别标志、分布图和地层柱与热带美洲新近纪海洋生物群WWW数据库相结合该项目将继续开发热带美洲新近纪海洋生物群数据库，这是一个在线生物数据库http://nmita.geology.uiowa.edu，其中包含作为加勒比海、中美洲和南美洲几个相关的多学科化石收集项目的一部分收集的高质量图像和分类群天气信息。它们包括巴拿马古生物学项目(由史密森热带研究所的杰克逊和科茨协调)和北多米尼加共和国新近纪古生物学项目(由瑞士巴塞尔自然历史博物馆的荣格协调)。NMITA提供了在收集中确定的单个分类群的作者、同名和模式标本的基本信息，以及诊断形态特征和地层和地理产状。该网站提供了在线识别关键字和图文并茂的形态术语词汇表，以及用于检查事件和解释分布模式的互动地图和地层栏。在该项目最初的第一阶段，来自美国、英国、瑞士和巴拿马不同机构的九名专家提供了信息。共有约1300个分类单元(约3800幅图像)，分属于两个王国和五个动物门。这些分类群包括：约225种珊瑚、约330种苔藓虫、约350种软体动物、约100种有孔虫、约100种介形虫和约230种鱼；除软体动物外，所有分类群都属于物种水平。在该项目的第二阶段(由本拨款支持)，将输入约1300个软体动物分类群和渐中新世珊瑚的数据，正在进行的有孔虫和介形虫数据录入将完成，其余关于珊瑚和苔藓虫的静态页面将被转换到新的Oracle系统中。将实施更多的识别标志和基于形态/生态的搜索例程，并将开发新的动态地图和列，显示个别分类群的出现情况。将开展与NCEAS古生物学数据库、标本数据库和STATPOD共享数据的试点项目。将为NMITA数据库项目开发适当的文件，并在网上提供，以便其他人可以管理数据库或在其他地方开发类似的数据库。完成后，NMITA将提供过去2500万年来热带美洲海洋生物多样性的基于图像的清单。它将作为一个古生物数据库，在定量分析地质时代的多样性方面说明分类群。它将总结正在进行的对热带美洲海洋化石生物群的系统研究，并有助于确定未来需要进行系统研究的不同分支。NMITA在古生物学数据库中是独一无二的，因为它的标本基础和对照片和插图的重视，它是未来古生物学分类数据传播的典范。

Integrating Interactive Identification Keys, Distribution Maps, and Stratigraphic Columns with the Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America WWW DatabaseThe project will continue development of the Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America (NMITA) database, an online biotic database http://nmita.geology.uiowa.edu containing high-quality images and synoptic information on taxa collected as part of several associated multidisciplinary fossil-collecting projects in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. They include the Panama Paleontology Project (coordinated by Jackson and Coates of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) and the Neogene Paleontology of the Northern Dominican Republic Project (coordinated by Jung of the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland). NMITA provides basic information on authorship, synonyms, and type specimens of individual taxa identified in the collections, as well as diagnostic morphologic characters and stratigraphic and geographic occurrences. The website offers online identification keys and illustrated glossaries of morphologic terms, as well as interactive maps and stratigraphic columns for examining occurrences and interpreting distribution patterns.During the original first phase of the project, information was contributed by nine specialists at different institutions in the U.S., U.K., Switzerland, and Panama. A total of ~1300 taxa (~3800 images) belonging to two kingdoms and five animal phyla were included. The taxa consisted of: ~225 corals, ~330 bryozoans, ~350 mollusks, ~100 foraminifera, ~100 ostracodes, and ~230 fish; all except mollusks are at the species level.During the second phase of the project (supported by the present grant), data for ~1300 molluscan taxa and Oligo-Miocene corals will be entered, ongoing data entry for foraminifera and ostracodes will be completed, and remaining static pages for corals and bryozoans will be converted to a new Oracle system. Additional identification keys and morphology/ecology-based search routines will be implemented, and new dynamic maps and columns showing occurrences for individual taxa will be developed. Pilot projects will be performed sharing data with the NCEAS Paleobiology database, specimen databases, and STATPOD. Proper documentation will be developed for the NMITA database project, and made available online so that others could manage the database or develop a similar database elsewhere.When complete, NMITA will provide an image-based inventory of the marine biodiversity of tropical America over the past 25 million years. It will serve as a paleontological databank, accounting for taxa in quantitativeanalyses of diversity through geologic time. It will summarize ongoing systematic research on the fossil marine biota of tropical America and be instrumental in earmarking diverse clades in need of future systematic study. NMITA is unique among paleontological databases in its specimen basis and its emphasis on photographs and illustrations, and it serves as a model for future dissemination of taxonomic data in paleontology.