Our knowledge about the history of life on Earth is humanity’s shared heritage. Analyses that rely on databases that archive this knowledge have become a cornerstone of modern paleontological/evolutionary research, which is crucially dependent on computational infrastructure and human resources. The integration of publicly available data on our fossil heritage will improve scientific outcomes for all.

  1. We support the establishment of an open, global organisation that ensures that data provision for paleontological/evolutionary research is robust, openly accessible, unbiased, equitable and sustainable.
  2. We support the establishment of an openly-developed, community-owned, internationally-organised data lake that aims to synthesise data on the history of life from existing databases, published literature, and museum/institutional collections. The data service is expected to support the assessment of previously untestable scientific hypotheses through the integration of ancient, historical and present-day biological information, which will increase spatio-temporal coverage of the fossil record and provide specimen/organism-level data of global coverage.
  3. We support this organisation as responsible for the management, curation and organisation of the next generation of data service to be used in paleontological/evolutionary research.
Open Science Collaboration


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Open Science Collaboration

I. Endorsing databases

II. List of Members

Dr. Katie Collins PhD - Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom

Dr. Kenneth De Baets PhD - University of Warsaw, Poland

Danijela Dimitrijević - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Dr. Elizabeth Dowding - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Australia

Dr. Emma Dunne PhD - FAU-Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Dr. Stewart Edie PhD - Smithsonian NMNH, United States of America

Prof. Dr. Seth Finnegan PhD - University of California, Berkeley, United States of America

Andrew Fraass - University of Victoria, Canada

Prof. Wolfgang Kiessling - GeoZentrum Nordbayern, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Dr. Ádám Kocsis PhD - FAU-Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Dr. Qi-jian LI - Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China

Prof. Dr. Lee Hsiang Liow PhD - University of Oslo, Norway

Dr. Lin Na PhD - Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China

Prof. Dr. Shanan Peters PhD - University of Wisconsin, United States of America

Nussaïbah Raja - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Dr Johan Renaudie - Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany

Prof. Dr. Erin Saupe PhD - University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Dr. Jocelyn Sessa - Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, USA

Dr. Jansen Smith - University of New Mexico, United States of America

Isaiah Smith - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Prof. Dr. Jack Williams PhD - University of Wisconsin, USA