Computer-aided identification of the Archaeocyatha genera now available online

Abstract

The Archaeocyatha are a key group in several of the many discrete disciplines that together make feasible a valid history of the Earth: they are the oldest of the calcified sponges, the first metazoans to build reefs (in association with calcimicrobes), are characteristic fossils used for the biozonation of the first, pre-trilobitic Cambrian stage (Tommotian)… To date, a valid key to their identification has not been available, so a tool for that purpose has been devised: it was created using the software XPER 2 , and is now available free, online. Published in English, the knowledge base includes the 307 valid described genera identified by 120 descriptors (85 morphological and ontogenetic, 8 stratigraphic and geographic and 27 taxonomic). A key to identification is supplemented by detailed descriptive cards with images of type specimens of each genus and details of their morphology that aid identification.

Treatise Online, no. 38: Part E, Revised, Volume 4, Chapter 18: General features of the Archaeocyatha

“…This does not mean that every empty cell of the table will eventually be occupied, but that any new form found and described will be accommodated within such a table. Such consistency permits the construction of taxonomic keys (Kerner, vignes lebbe, & Debrenne, 2011).…”

Identifying Botnets Intrusion & Prevention – A Review

“…A game-changing event was the appearance of the Nugache Worm, first detected in 2005 and considered to be responsible for the creation of one of the first botnets with a successfully distributed C&C infrastructure, based on a P2P protocol. Since then, other P2P botnets have been observed and analysed [16].…”

“…Botnets are perfect vehicles for criminal undertakings on the Internet because they provide anonymity and scattered access to the Internet. Not long ago, bots were used for producing Bitcoins (BTC), an experimental digital coinage scheme that was published in 2009 [16]. However, criminals are always inventing new and creative ways to profit from botnets including: Spam: Spammers send millions of emails advertising data and login information, or running advance-fee schemes such as the Nigerian 419 scam [2].…”

Chapter 6 The role of Archaeocyatha in Cambrian biostratigraphy and biogeography

“…Establishing a database is nowadays is one of the powerful means to manage and analyze complex information. The archaeocyathan database has been produced initially to provide a flexible tool to identify archaeocyath genera (Kerner et al, 2011b). This has been developed with Xper², a free software to store, edit and manage descriptive data and to provide a free access key.…”