Matthew Clapham
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Fossils record the history of life on Earth, but that record is scattered across thousands of collections and publications. The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) gathers the age, location, identity and geological setting of fossils into one shared online resource.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Computer Science
- Topics
Paleobiology Database
PBot
Integrative Paleobotany Portal
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Overhaul the Paleobiology Database's data model, database and application logic to integrate features from the Integrative Paleobotany Portal (PBot), streamline data entry and improve long-term sustainability.
- Build a more capable application programming interface and a new web application that support uncertain taxonomic identifications, specimen-based organization of data and specimen images.
- Host community events to assess progress, train new contributors, gather new fossil data and produce educational and outreach materials.
More about the research
Data from the PBDB have been used in more than 2,000 scientific publications and in many teaching materials. Its computer systems, however, date from the late 1990s and early 2000s and are hard to maintain and extend.
Why it matters
A modernized fossil database could make it easier and cheaper for scientists, educators, students and the public to use fossil data. Researchers could draw on it to study Earth history, past ecosystems and evolutionary change, and specimen images and simpler tools could widen public engagement with fossil science.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shanan Peters
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Earth & Environmental Science
Compile and standardize the location, age, rock type and thickness of rocks across northern Eurasia and add them to Macrostrat, an open database of Earth's crust.
Jonathan Payne
Stanford University, CA·Ecology & Evolution
Extend a standardized database of marine animal body size measurements spanning the last 575 million years, incorporating previously unpublished Ediacaran body-size data from the interval preceding the main animal fossil record.
Sarah Sheffield
Binghamton University, NY·Ecology & Evolution
Test how ancient climate events affected heterochrony, meaning shifts in developmental timing, in Paleozoic echinoderms, using phylogenetic trees built from museum, database and literature data.
The school
University of California-Santa Cruz: 15 labs on PI Pages, $218M a year on research, 183 research doctorates a year.
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