The Epandda Project: Linking the Paleobiology Database, Idigbio, and Idigpaleo for Biological and Paleontological Research, Collections Management, and Outreach

Abstract

There are several online paleontological resources that serve a diversity of needs: the Paleobiology Database (PaleoBioDB), a database of fossil occurrences built largely from the primary scientific literature; iDigBio, the national hub for neontological and paleontological specimen data; and iDigPaleo, a specimen-based website built for educational use. While each resource is useful on its own, aggregating data from them is laborious and problematic, as the connectivity between modern and fossil, and specimen and literature-based, resources does not currently exist. Funded by the NSF EarthCube initiative (ICER 1821039), the enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API (ePANDDA) project is using application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate the paleontological and neontological resources of these three sites.