A community-curated controlled vocabulary for fossil collections using dwc:materialEntityType

What this was about

Holly Little explained why the new Darwin Core terms materialEntityCategory and materialEntityType (from the Darwin Core Data Package work) give paleontology collections a chance to go beyond basisOfRecord = FossilSpecimen. Using examples (insects in amber versus compression fossils, bivalves in matrix, forams as bulk samples, picks, slides or macrofossils, trilobite mass-mortality slabs) she showed that early values such as macrofossil/mesofossil/microfossil are too coarse for search, research and imaging planning. The group proposes a first-level controlled vocabulary drawn from terms collections already use, with an informal second level, and is seeking community feedback via a QR-linked document before formal proposal to Darwin Core.

Why it matters. Fossil records in aggregators like GBIF are hard to filter by the kind of physical material; a shared vocabulary improves discoverability for researchers and planning for collections staff (e.g. imaging workflows).

In the room

• basisOfRecord = FossilSpecimen only separates fossils from other record types; it cannot distinguish e.g. an insect in amber from a compression fossil.
• materialEntityCategory would carry 'fossil'/'fossilized', while materialEntityType can be more specific; early proposed values (macro-, meso-, micro-, oversized fossil) were judged not granular enough.
• Feedback was gathered from the Paleo Data Working Group, researchers, a session at the Smithsonian NMNH, the TDWG Earth Sciences and Paleobiology Interest Group and a US collections workshop.
• The vocabulary prioritises terms the paleo community already uses; some perceived overlap between terms is intentional.
• Proposal is hierarchical: a formal first level plus an informal nested second level for institutions wanting more detail.
• It covers paleontology only; geology material types are handled by a separate vocabulary Ben Norton is developing.
• Other terms (dwc:preparations, counts, taxonomy, Latimer Core terms) help but are uncontrolled, not indexed or not in Darwin Core; a morphology term does not yet exist.

Notable moments