Cinzia Cervato1, Vladimir Davydov2, Doug Fils1, Brian Huber3 & Mark Leckie4
1 Iowa State University and CHRONOS, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
2 Boise State University and PaleoStrat, Boise, ID 83725, USA
3 National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA
4 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
The NSF-funded CHRONOS System project (www.chronos.org) is initiating the development of an IT system for taxonomic dictionaries as an initiative of the paleobiological community. This system includes: 1) taxonomic atlases with searchable data fields including taxonomic attribution, ,morphologic descriptors, type locality, synonymy, similar species, illustrations of type specimens, and “public comment/view comments” fields with each taxonomic record, 2) storage of multiple taxonomic interpretation, including a variety of synonyms and uncertain taxon names; 3) ability for the user to search, retrieve, check, produce, and store existing information as well as their interpretations in a secure way; 4) direct interaction with other existing and developing geologic, paleobiologic, and biologic databases (e.g., Neptune, Paleobiology DB, PaleoStrat, etc.). An essential requirement for this system is interoperability with standards for biological taxonomic data (e.g., DarwinCore and DiGIR). This follows up on the ongoing work on taxonomy for the Neptune (http://services.chronos.org/databases/neptune /index.html) and PaleoStrat (www.paleostrat.org) databases, and the Mesozoic Planktic Foraminifera Taxonomic Database (http://portal.chronos.org:80/gridsphere/gridsphere ?cid=data_taxondb&JavaScript=enabled)
As part of this effort, we are planning to establish a GUID for fossil taxa [International Taxon/Holotype Unique Number (ITHUN)] and a management system to track each Type and make it a major component of the developed taxonomic extension. The ITHUN is a core component of the proposed taxonomic system because it will provide maximum operational flexibility within individual databases, and will allow other databases to easily connect with the dictionary regardless of variations in taxonomic interpretations. Users will be able to develop and permanently store and/or modify their data and taxonomic opinions at any taxonomic level, but not alter the original definition. Thus, this preserves the critical formal construct of taxonomy, and it will be accessible to all via the World Wide Web.