Extinct West Indian Vertebrates on the World Wide Web: a Digital Museum for Geoscience Conservation, Education and Research

万维网上的西印度脊椎动物：地球科学保护、教育和研究的数字博物馆这是一个试点项目，重点关注波多黎各灭绝的脊椎动物。该项目汇集并传播了西印度群岛第四纪晚期灭绝脊椎动物的交互式数字图书馆，这是一个长达十年的研究和教育计划的扩展。西印度群岛的晚第四纪脊椎动物，尤其是哺乳动物的历史是特别有趣的，因为它被一波在其他地方前所未有的灭绝所主宰。西印度群岛第四纪脊椎动物化石几乎全部保存在洞穴中。加勒比地区的高人口密度对洞穴产生了重大影响，古生物学和古气候证据的损失无可替代。西印度群岛洞穴中古生态和古气候档案的保存和阐明取决于当地科学家、业余自然历史学家、洞穴探险者和知情的公众成员的合作。由于无法获得比较材料，这些不同利益集团的参与受到严重限制，由于实际和历史原因，这些材料通常被纳入美国主要博物馆的收藏。本项目使这些材料以数字形式通过万维网和CD-ROM分发方式广泛提供。

ABSTRACTExtinct West Indian Vertebrates on the World Wide Web: A Digital Museum for Geoscience Conservation, Education and ResearchThis is a pilot project, focusing on the extinct vertebrates of Puerto Rico. The project assembles and disseminates interactive, digital library of late Quaternary extinct vertebrates from the West Indies, an expansion of a decade-long research and education program. The late Quaternary history of West Indian vertebrates, especially mammals, is of special interest because it is dominated by a wave of extinctions unprecedented elsewhere. West Indian Quaternary vertebrate fossils are preserved almost exclusively in caves. High human population densities in the Caribbean are significantly impacting caves, with the irreplaceable loss of both paleontological and paleoclimatic evidence. The survival and elucidation of the paleoecological and paleoclimatic archive in West Indian caves depends on a collaboration of local scientists, amateur natural historians, cavers and informed members of the general public. Participation by these diverse interest groups is severely limited by a lack of access to comparative materials, which for practical and historic reasons have generally been accessioned into the collections of the major museums in the United States. This project makes these materials widely available in digital form, via both the World-Wide-Web and distribution on CD-ROM Methods.