Googling Turritella
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Gerrit-Jan
- Berichten: 5493
- Lid geworden op: 21 jan 2006, 18:41
- Contacteer:
Googling Turritella
Googling Turritella, or
The Present and Future Value of the Web for Paleontological Research by Warren D. Allmon
Introduction: Thanksgiving in the Adirondacks
Last Fall I went looking for fossils. As is often the case with such exploring, I had something particular in mind, but wasn’t really sure in what form it would be if and when I found it. I was very successful; I discovered several significant fossil occurrences that had not been previously reported in the technical literature and that promise to reveal interesting patterns about the history of a particular group of organisms and its environment. I wrote up the results and submitted them for publication. I found some other occurrences that I could make less sense of, and added them to my \"to do\" list with the intention of looking for more information in the future.
This description probably fits experiences that all paleontologists have had. What made this one noteworthy, at least to me, is that I did almost all of it on-line. Sitting in front of a warm fireplace in the Adirondacks over Thanksgiving weekend 2003, I for the first time typed the genus name of my favorite group of gastropods—\"turritella\"—into Google.
The results of this exercise were really no different from any other more traditional paleontological exploring—in the field or in the drawers of a museum collection. Coming upon new fossil occurrences fortuitously but with a prepared mind has been a crucial part of our field from its very beginnings. What surprised me, however, were the sources of my \"discoveries\". They were not in the databases of professional researchers, nor in the electronic catalogs of institutional collections, nor in the virtual libraries of data or images (now increasingly referred to as \"cyberinfrastructure\" that are currently the focus of so much of so much of our field’s activity and funding. They were on websites selling fossils or displaying the personal collections of amateurs. They were on the decorative homepages of museums or departments or small towns. They were in the on-line versions of local fossil club newsletters.
It is a commonplace observation that the Internet has changed our personal and professional lives. The almost daily effects for paleontology include not only the ubiquity of email but also the increasing ease with which fossils are bought and sold (for discussions of the fossil trade, on- and off-line, see, e.g., Forster 2001; Long 2002; Secher, 1999, NRC 2002 and references therein). Like so many things today, fossils have been globally commodified. The online fossil trade has in some cases brought institutions more acquisitions, but also more headaches. Many of the fossils easily available on-line have been illegally collected from other countries. Many specimens on-line are fakes, or composites, or restored without being advertised as such. Many have no or incorrect locality information. (These problems are not unique to on-line sales, of course, but they are magnified by the ease and volume of on-line transactions.) Increasingly attuned to potential commercial value by the Internet, furthermore, collectors (or their heirs) are sometimes more reluctant to donate specimens to institutions. When someone does donate a specimen or collection to my institution, I now routinely direct them to eBay as the easiest place to determine its cash value for tax purposes, and I have heard staff from other museums say the same thing.
Saturated though I am with these day-to-day influences, as well as with seemingly endless professional meetings, grant proposals, initiatives, consortia, and workshops devoted to making the collections and data of our field available on-line, I was startled by the manner in which the Internet had abruptly affected my own research. The Web—or at least Google—did make information available to me that would not have been available otherwise; but it was not the information that I hear colleagues and funders talking so much about. From this experience, I eventually found myself asking two questions: (1) What is the actual (as opposed to the potential) utility of the Web as a research tool for paleontology right now (not just in the distant future)? (2) What do the answers to question 1 suggest about the directions that current and future on-line initiatives in our field should take?
Interessante overdenking, gezien wij toch redelijk veel gebruik maken van Google??
Lees verder op http://palaeo-electronica.org/2004_2/editor/focus.htm en http://palaeo-electronica.org/2006_1/editor/age.pdf (PDF)
Groet
[Bewerkt door Gerrit-Jan op 14-06-2007 om 11:54 NL]
The Present and Future Value of the Web for Paleontological Research by Warren D. Allmon
Introduction: Thanksgiving in the Adirondacks
Last Fall I went looking for fossils. As is often the case with such exploring, I had something particular in mind, but wasn’t really sure in what form it would be if and when I found it. I was very successful; I discovered several significant fossil occurrences that had not been previously reported in the technical literature and that promise to reveal interesting patterns about the history of a particular group of organisms and its environment. I wrote up the results and submitted them for publication. I found some other occurrences that I could make less sense of, and added them to my \"to do\" list with the intention of looking for more information in the future.
This description probably fits experiences that all paleontologists have had. What made this one noteworthy, at least to me, is that I did almost all of it on-line. Sitting in front of a warm fireplace in the Adirondacks over Thanksgiving weekend 2003, I for the first time typed the genus name of my favorite group of gastropods—\"turritella\"—into Google.
The results of this exercise were really no different from any other more traditional paleontological exploring—in the field or in the drawers of a museum collection. Coming upon new fossil occurrences fortuitously but with a prepared mind has been a crucial part of our field from its very beginnings. What surprised me, however, were the sources of my \"discoveries\". They were not in the databases of professional researchers, nor in the electronic catalogs of institutional collections, nor in the virtual libraries of data or images (now increasingly referred to as \"cyberinfrastructure\" that are currently the focus of so much of so much of our field’s activity and funding. They were on websites selling fossils or displaying the personal collections of amateurs. They were on the decorative homepages of museums or departments or small towns. They were in the on-line versions of local fossil club newsletters.
It is a commonplace observation that the Internet has changed our personal and professional lives. The almost daily effects for paleontology include not only the ubiquity of email but also the increasing ease with which fossils are bought and sold (for discussions of the fossil trade, on- and off-line, see, e.g., Forster 2001; Long 2002; Secher, 1999, NRC 2002 and references therein). Like so many things today, fossils have been globally commodified. The online fossil trade has in some cases brought institutions more acquisitions, but also more headaches. Many of the fossils easily available on-line have been illegally collected from other countries. Many specimens on-line are fakes, or composites, or restored without being advertised as such. Many have no or incorrect locality information. (These problems are not unique to on-line sales, of course, but they are magnified by the ease and volume of on-line transactions.) Increasingly attuned to potential commercial value by the Internet, furthermore, collectors (or their heirs) are sometimes more reluctant to donate specimens to institutions. When someone does donate a specimen or collection to my institution, I now routinely direct them to eBay as the easiest place to determine its cash value for tax purposes, and I have heard staff from other museums say the same thing.
Saturated though I am with these day-to-day influences, as well as with seemingly endless professional meetings, grant proposals, initiatives, consortia, and workshops devoted to making the collections and data of our field available on-line, I was startled by the manner in which the Internet had abruptly affected my own research. The Web—or at least Google—did make information available to me that would not have been available otherwise; but it was not the information that I hear colleagues and funders talking so much about. From this experience, I eventually found myself asking two questions: (1) What is the actual (as opposed to the potential) utility of the Web as a research tool for paleontology right now (not just in the distant future)? (2) What do the answers to question 1 suggest about the directions that current and future on-line initiatives in our field should take?
Interessante overdenking, gezien wij toch redelijk veel gebruik maken van Google??
Lees verder op http://palaeo-electronica.org/2004_2/editor/focus.htm en http://palaeo-electronica.org/2006_1/editor/age.pdf (PDF)
Groet
[Bewerkt door Gerrit-Jan op 14-06-2007 om 11:54 NL]
Niets is leuker dan fossielen zoeken met vrienden :)
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Henk Jan
- Berichten: 1175
- Lid geworden op: 31 okt 2005, 13:06
- Has thanked: 1 time
- Been thanked: 1 time
Antw: Googling Turritella
Heb eerst \'turritella\' opgezocht op het Web. En zie hier het eerste opzienbarende resultaat:
grote knuffel(edel)steen Turritella Agaat
- de steen ligt op een stukje papier waarvan ieder blokje een vierkante millimeter is -
info gevonden op het internet
werking:
Schenk terugtocht op spiritueel gebied, helpt om schuldgevoelens te overwinnen. Geeft de prikkel om zich te bezinnen op de eigen wensen, bezieling en plannen. Bevordert de ontslakking en de stoelgang. Verhoogt de weerstand tegen vervuiling, gif en bestraling.
Tot zover. Mijn hemel: een slak die ontslakking tegengaat!
[Bewerkt door Henk Jan op 14-06-2007 om 12:42 NL]
grote knuffel(edel)steen Turritella Agaat
- de steen ligt op een stukje papier waarvan ieder blokje een vierkante millimeter is -
info gevonden op het internet
werking:
Schenk terugtocht op spiritueel gebied, helpt om schuldgevoelens te overwinnen. Geeft de prikkel om zich te bezinnen op de eigen wensen, bezieling en plannen. Bevordert de ontslakking en de stoelgang. Verhoogt de weerstand tegen vervuiling, gif en bestraling.
Tot zover. Mijn hemel: een slak die ontslakking tegengaat!
[Bewerkt door Henk Jan op 14-06-2007 om 12:42 NL]
HJ