Hominin Database
I just mentioned that I’ve been out of the loop. Aside from banging my head against the desk over Aaron Filler’s paper, I’ve also been developing the framework to a database of hominin fossil remains. I’d like to share it with you in this post. I’ve creatively named the project, Hominin Database. I coulda gone with a much more elaborate name… but in this age of search engine optimization and human readable formats, I figured having hominin and database will get people to what they wanna see.
I’m developing this project because paleoanthropology desperately needs a public repository of fossil remains. And by no means am I the first. People have tried to do it in the past and have failed for some reason or another. Some were just poorly executed, with confusing user interfaces and strange data structuring. Others weren’t kept up. Others were closed access. With more and more fossils coming out of the ground, we need to get something up there fast before we fall really far behind.
The site is pretty easy to use and has a web 2.0 feel. I’ve got Google Maps going on as well as a dynamic time line which are unique ways to browse the database. If there are 3-D views of the fossils, such as CT scans, I plan to make those available. As of right now I’m not planning on placing any credit other than the authors of the primary publication to each fossil because I know how particular paleoanthropologists are about their fossils. Hopefully this will facilitate some community growth.
Anyways, enough cheer leading… there only 5 fossils currently and a handful of known bugs with the site, mostly formatting issues because of browser inconsistencies. The time feature doesn’t seem to show data in geochronological order… which is something I have to fix. And there’s also some minor problems with the map view too. Basically the site is still in ‘alpha’ not yet ‘beta’ and not even close to being production.
Besides introducing this pet project, I wanted to extend and invitation out to people to help propagate the site with fossils. If you want to help, please comment here or shoot me an email and I’ll get in touch with you. The submission form is very straight forward. If you don’t or can’t help submit fossils, please give me some criticism on what works, what doesn’t, etc.
I look forward to seeing the database develop in the coming months and years. Well done.
David O'Mahony
October 17, 2007 at 5:29 am
I’d love to help!
afarensis
October 17, 2007 at 6:34 am
[...] websites in the past week for those of you who might be interested in early man in Southeast Asia. Anthropology.net just announced the start of a new web initiative, the Hominin Database, which hopes to be a public [...]
Two hominin websites | SEAArch - The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog
October 22, 2007 at 11:06 pm
you might be interested in the Southeast Asian Arhcaeology Scholarly Website which contains a skeletal database for two Thai sites.
http://seasia.museum.upenn.edu/
noelbynature
October 22, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Love the idea. I’d like to contibute.
I have been producing this:
http://home.planet.nl/~hesse877/Java/Frameset.htm
(By the way, I contact you here because I couldn’t contact you via the hominin contact-box.)
Bram
October 30, 2007 at 2:32 am
Hey Bram, that’s such an excellent comparative resource you have there. I’d love to have your help and thanks so much for telling me the Hominin.net contact form doesn’t work. While I fix it, send me an email to kambiz@anthropology.net, if you’re still interested. I’ll let you know what needs to be done to set you up with an account.
Kambiz
Kambiz
October 30, 2007 at 11:43 am
Dear all
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Dil Kader
May 11, 2008 at 1:15 am
Good post… hope u will keep on posting like that
Jamie G. Doak
April 21, 2010 at 9:24 am
[...] to Comments A colleague of mine has developed a new online human fossil record, in the likes of my own database of fossils. The project is Fossilized.org and although it is in beta, it has some remarkable features [...]
Check Out Fossilized.org « Anthropology.net
September 13, 2010 at 5:02 am