Paper No. 310-5
Presentation Time: 9:15 AM
THE EPANDDA PROJECT: LINKING THE PALEOBIOLOGY DATABASE, IDIGBIO, AND IDIGPALEO FOR BIOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT, AND OUTREACH
SESSA, Jocelyn A., Department of Invertebrate Paleontology, The Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103, BUTTS, Susan, Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, 170 Whitney Avenue, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 208118, KARIM, Talia S., University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado, 265 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, NELSON, Gil, iDigBio, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, NORRIS, Christopher A., Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, 170 Whitney Avenue, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, SERRATOS, Danielle J., Museum of Geology, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City, SD 57701, SMITH, Dena, Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230 and UHEN, Mark D., Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030, jsessa@drexel.edu
Over the last decades, several online resources have become established within the paleontological community for a diversity of scientific needs: the Paleobiology Database (PBDB), a database of fossil occurrences built largely of primary scientific literature; iDigBio, the national hub for neontological and paleontological specimen data; and iDigPaleo, a specimen-based website built for educational use. While each resource is useful on its own, aggregating data from them is laborious and problematic, as the connectivity between modern and fossil, and specimen and literature-based resources does not currently exist. Funded by the NSF EarthCube initiative, the enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API (ePANDDA) project is using application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate the paleontological and neontological resources of these three sites. ePANDDA connectivity allows each respective database to query the others for information on all aspects of specimens and taxa, and return synthetic data to the user. For example, a neontologist could begin a search in the iDigBio portal using a taxonomic name. In addition to modern specimen records available in iDigBio, they will receive paleontological records in iDigPaleo and the PBDB. The connectivity of these resources facilities addressing research questions currently difficult to answer, even with multiple researchers working as a group.
The input of end users in the creation of software widgets that use the API was sought at two workshops in 2016. During this presentation, we will demonstrate several of these software widgets, including one that geolocates a user and displays records from all three databases of all organisms within a specified radius. We will also showcase how iDigBio will use information from the PBDB to suggest updates (aka, annotations) to an iDigBio collection record, for example, to update outdated taxonomy, or to fill in missing stratigraphic information. Similarly, the PBDB will use the ePANDDA API to display links to taxa within iDigBio and iDigPaleo. The presentation will also include discussion of how ePANDDA can collaborate with other existing geological and biological resources.
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