SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL TRENDS AND BIASES IN PALEONTOLOGIC RESEARCH AND TAXONOMY

We conducted a series of statistical analyses of reported specimen data dating back to the 1700’s to look for discrepancies and potential biases in the body of published paleontological research over time and geography. We explored specimen data from various taxonomic levels from the Paleobiology Database. Additionally, we used modern latitude and longitude coordinates associated with each specimen to determine a general trend for paleolatitudes throughout geologic time, in order to determine whether the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient (LDG) is continuously present throughout history or is simply a contemporary phenomenon.

We examined over 150,000 unique entries from the Paleobiology Database, approaching the data from a variety of spatial and temporal angles, including the number of unique specimens for a given taxonomic ranking by continent, over geologic time, and as discovered in human history.

We extracted latitude and longitude coordinates from all listed specimens in Kingdom Animalia and compared modern locations to original latitudes through paleolatitude.org in cooperation with the site authors.

We find that the specimens hailing from the southern hemisphere are significantly underrepresented in the data, and that there is potential taxonomic bias from the nature of cladistic classification over time. We also see indications that there is potential bias toward temperate species in the reported data when compared with an expected latitudinal diversity gradient.