Links Currently Available

Primate Morphology Online database (PRIMO)
The PRIMO database has been in development since 1999 as a means of organizing and prividing open access to a variety of data types collected by members of the NMG (NYCEP Morphometrics Group, an informal association of researchers working on anthropological problems with mainly three-dimensional data, see here). The database includes collection data on each of nearly 5000 included individuals, such as institution and collection number, geographic data on collection locality (country, province and usually latitude & longitude), sex and mass when known. Datatypes include scalar (linear) caliper measurements taken by Delson and his students and colleagues (as well as selected data transcribed from the published literature) on dentition, skull and postcranial elements; 3D data from Microscribe digitizers and laser scanners on crania, mandibles and postcrania. Digital imagery is planned for future inclusion. The majority of the data are derived from extant and fossil cercopithecids, with smaller samples of extant hominoids, with fossils to come.

Revealing Human Origins Initiative (RHOI) Specimen Database
The RHOI is a collaboration of paleoanthropological and related projects studying Late Miocene (and Pliocene) hominins and other faunas in context. The database includes individual specimens collected by member projects and can be searched by taxonomic, geological, project or collection keywords. Most specimens include digital imagery, along with information on age, geology, collection and taxonomy.

Neanderthal Studies Professional Online System (NESPOS)
NESPOS grew out of the TNT (The Neanderthal Tools) project, which ran from 2004-2005 and developed a database of information about Neanderthal-related sites, fossils and archaeological assemblages. Currently more than 500 CT-Scans and data from 50 Neanderthal sites are accessible; the data base is extended constantly. Members of NESPOS (an international professional society) receive access to CT & 3D surface scans of fossils and artifacts visualized in ArteCore and 3D terrain models and virtual excavation sites accessible with GeoCore, a GIS and exploration tool.

Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB)

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology site/specimen database

EVAN-Society e.V.
EVAN-Society e.V. is a non-profit organization founded by EVAN members to further promote the goals of Virtual Anthropology in Europe and worldwide. Its main goals are to maintain and build up further relations between institutions working in Virtual Anthropology, to continue developing the EVAN Toolbox and Archive, and to provide access to these European infrastructural measures and related information and documentation. The EVAN Archive contains several hundred 3D datasets of extant hominoids that are accessible for members.

digital@rchive of Fossil Hominoids
The digital@rchive of Fossil Hominoids started in 1999 when the worldwide first electronic medium containing a digital fossil was released by us. The archive still is the only website where users can get easy access to some of the most important hominid fossils. Our main goal is to facilitate morphological investigations in the field of human evolution by providing digital data for the international scientific community. The archive is established as a non-profit endeavour. Funds generated from the sale of electronic media are mainly used (less manufacturing costs) to support institutions concerned with heritage projects in the country of origin of the individual fossil. Our media (CD or DVD) contain digital data (mostly CT scans, in some cases micro-CT scans and surface scans) in different formats, pictures of the original and the virtual fossil, movies, references, links, and an introduction into Virtual Anthropology.

Links to Web Sites Related to General Paleontological Databases

Neogene Old World Mammals (NOW)

This database became public in 1996 and was put on the Internet in primitive form a few years later; it has recently been provided with a sophisticated user interface. NOW includes information on taxa in mainly Neogene faunas, mostly from Europe but also including some African and Asian assemblages; data types include size, diet, locomotion and dental morphology on systematically organized taxa, while site data includes age, country and state. NOW is maintained in collaboration with an extensive Advisory Board, is entirely public (apart from datasets under development), and can be edited over the Internet by authorized contributors. NOW is linked (although currently only behind the scenes) to a public database of 3D tooth shape, MorphoBrowser (http://pantodon.science.helsinki.fi/morphobrowser/).

Paleoportal—The Paleontology Portal
Allows searches of multiple museum specimen databases through a single entry point, plus many other features.

Bibliography of African Cainozoic Continental Macropalaeontology
Bibliography compiled by Martin Pickford, accompanied by stratigraphic table and maps of site locations.

Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ETE) database

National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)

The Paleobiology Database

American Museum of Natural History, Division of Paleontology, collection database

American Museum of Natural History, Department of Mammalogy, collection database

National Museum of Natural History, Division of Mammals, collection database

Dental Microwear
Data on microwear, especially of primates, for dietary reconstruction

Morphobrowser
Database of mammalian tooth morphology, searchable features and downloadable data

Geon
The Geosciences Network (GEON) project is a collaboration among a dozen PI institutions and a number of other partner projects, institutions, and agencies to develop cyberinfrastructure in support of an environment for integrative geoscience research.

MaNIS—Mammal Networked Information System
Links seventeen North American institutions in order to 1) facilitate open access to combined specimen data from a web browser, 2) enhance the value of specimen collections, 3) conserve curatorial resources, and 4) use a design paradigm that can be easily adopted by other disciplines with similar needs.

DiGIR—Distributed Generic Information Retrieval
Software system to facilitate linking of distinct databases through a portal.

Darwin Core
A uniform standard designed to facilitate the exchange of information about the geographic occurrence of species and the existence of specimens in collections, with extensions for paleontology.