Cyberinfrastructurasaurus

This week I found an example of a scientist who is actively making use of cyberinfrastructure in his research. Allister Rees is a paleontologist/paleo-climatologist at the University of Arizona who coordinates the GEON PaleoIntegration Project (PIP). The PIP consists of a combination of five separate databases, available online, which can be applied individually or in any combination of the five at once. (The GEON PIP also features a free public portal, but you do have to request an account in order to have one authorized. What's really interesting is that the request form asks whether or not you want to be approved to post data to the databases, so there must be at least some data sharing going on. I did not request an account for fear of being an annoyance or time-waste, not being at all qualified to interpret paleontological data myself, but a preview tutorial is available here: PIP.) At any rate, the databases cover various eras of lithofacies (which I take to be referring to large patterns of sendimentary layers), the distribution of and data regarding certain types of climate sensitive rock and sediment from which the paleo-climate can be inferred, dinosaur distrabution, and plant fossil distrabution. The databases are then paired with paleographic maps and mapping tools.

In this brief article on the project, Rees asserts that his use of the PIP databases led him to conclude that dry, savanna-like climates tend to be the most likely to preserve dinosaur fossils, a conclusion which he claims Paleontologists had not yet realized since he was the first to directly look at paleo-vegetation diversity and the presence of dinosaur fossils in an overlay sort of function. Rees also feels like the PIP will be valuable in the study of mass extinctions and climate change.

I found the project interesting both because it illustrates the value for scientists in being able instantly to compare data from multiple specific fields courtesy of cyberinfrastructure and also because the presence of free, online databases does suggest that at least some scientists are willing to share their data.