Using the Online Paleobiology Database to Teach Important Historical Geology Concepts to Introductory Undergraduate Students

The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) is an international scientific project that brings together taxonomic and geographical information about the fossil record of plants and animals. The goals of the Paleobiology Database are to educate the public, summarize the literature for professionals and encourage the statistical study of changes in biodiversity through time. The software features of the database as well as the data contained within are free and open for use by the public (www.paleodb.org). We developed a laboratory exercise for an introductory historical geology course using this online database to illustrate the concepts of migration, extinction and origination, and to examine the relationship between continental position and distribution of life through time.

Students downloaded diversity data from the PBDB for Veneridae and Hippuritoida bivalves and plotted diversity curves in Excel to illustrate the rapid diversification of these bivalves and the timing of extinction of Hippuritoida. This portion of the lab reinforces concepts discussed in class such as the “Cambrian explosion” and extinction. Students then used the PBDB to plot distributions of bivalves for the Devonian, Cretaceous and Pleistocene and interpreted these distributions to be the result of the waxing and waning of epicontinental seas.

Animal migration was illustrated using ungulate and horse fossil distributions. For example, students were required to create maps that plotted the location of horse fossils in the Oligocene, Middle Miocene, Late Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene. By doing so, students were able to constrain the timing of the formation of the Panama land bridge. This exercise reinforced the importance of the relationship between continental configuration and animal migration over geologic time scales.

A lab using the PBDB gives students exposure to databases, graph interpretation and excel spreadsheets. It also has the potential to serve as a capstone laboratory exercise that synthesizes important concepts in historical geology.