The Neotoma Paleoecological Database is a Community Curated Data Repository (CCDR) that sits at the interface between the Earth Sciences and the Biological Sciences. With the implementation of new data access tools and continued development and integration with existing tools, the database has grown over the past year, both with regards to the total number of samples recorded within the database, but also with regards to data accessibility, redundancy, and openness. Our recent efforts have focused on the long term sustainability of the database, and on providing greater returns for researchers using the database, either as a source of data, or as a repository for data storage.
Results/Conclusions
Activities centered around the database over the past year have included the implementation of a DOI system, integration with the Paleobiology Database, a new capability to store specimen-level data, a new system for storing isotopic data from biological specimens or physical samples, new security settings and the implementation of an embargoing system that supports data submission prior to publication. We highlight outreach work in digital cartography, visualization and data access that is currently underway. The integration of faunal data from the MIOMAP and the FAUNMAP II databases means that records now stretch back into the past over nearly 30 million years. This presentation will provide an overview of some of the new key features of the database, its development and future directions.