Mobilizing rich, interoperable, and secure fossil data from underserved collections using Symbiota
Erica Krimmel · Solutions for Research Collection Management Systems Challenges
The short versionTargeted Symbiota enhancements around geological context, taxonomy and relationships make a low-barrier CMS viable for under-resourced fossil collections.
What this was about
Erika Krimmel described a project (started 2023) to make Symbiota work for fossil collections, which are underrepresented despite Symbiota's popularity with small, under-resourced collections. A new Paleo Data Portal serves as testbed. Enhancements released in Symbiota 3.4 include GBIF GeoTime–based chronostratigraphy entry with auto-populated hierarchy, and staging scripts for stratigraphic and morphology remarks. There is inclusive numerical-time search, a Macrostrat geology map layer (also in georeferencing), and taxonomy sourced from Catalogue of Life XR via ChecklistBank to trace errors. Other additions: default 'FossilSpecimen' basis of record, description fields for material type, and relationships such as part/counterpart and slab-with. Features are documented in Symbiota Docs and a new Paleodata Knowledge Hub, and collections are being onboarded.
Why it matters. It extends the benefits of a widely used, low-cost platform to paleontological collections and improves how geological time data reach GBIF.
In the room
- Symbiota's pre-2023 paleo module had undocumented custom fields, and geological context was not searchable or exportable publicly.
- Chronostratigraphic entry now uses a controlled vocabulary aligned with GBIF GeoTime and the International Chronostratigraphic Chart.
- Search over geological time is inclusive using the vocabulary's numerical timescale, based on researcher feedback.
- Macrostrat API geology layer is available in map search and georeferencing.
- Taxonomy is sourced from Catalogue of Life Extended Release in ChecklistBank, allowing tracing and reporting of incorrect higher taxonomy.
- Collections can set FossilSpecimen as the default basis of record.
- Relationships document part/counterpart pairs and slab associations with uncatalogued material; links to MorphoSource, MorphoBank and BHL.
Notable moments
Transcript
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