REGIONALLY-BASED PALEONTOLOGICAL DATABASES – TWO EXAMPLES OF WEB-BASED ARCHIVING OF USGS FOSSIL DATA FROM ALASKA AND THE GREAT BASIN

The preservation and archiving of paleontological data provides invaluable information for future studies focused on regional geologic mapping, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, basin analysis for oil and mineral exploration, paleogeographic reconstructions and paleoclimatic modeling. These data are also of immense use in land management decisions regarding assessment and protection of fossil resources on federal and state lands.

We have constructed two separate web sites that archive the vast, mostly unpublished paleontological data set gathered by the USGS in Alaska and the Great Basin. The Alaska site (Alaska Paleontological Database - URL: www.alaskafossil.org) has been in existence for over 4 years and currently houses 12,100 separate fossil locality records. The site for the Great Basin was initiated this year and is linked for access through the Alaska site. Both sites have advanced search capabilities and an interactive map for researchers to find data from their area of interest. In addition to USGS fossil data, we have also been adding data derived from non-USGS sources (publications in professional journals and theses). Our data includes both megafossils and microfossils from surficial exposures and borehole samples. In the process of accumulating literature for entry on both sites, we have assembled extensive bibliographies for paleontological literature covering both regions. A paleontological bibliography for the Great Basin (authors: R.B. Blodgett, Ning Zhang, A.H. Hofstra, and J.R. Morrow) is in-press as a USGS open-file report and will be shortly available over the web. In this presentation we provide examples of how to use these sites as well a brief description of the structure of the database. The Alaska website has been extensively used by many researchers, including personnel of the USGS and Alaska State Geological Survey (ADGGS), academic and industry geologists, as well as National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel.