9705199 Budd In this research, Ann Budd and colleagues will develop a vouchered taxonomic database of the Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America (NMITA) for fossil collections made by the Panama Paleontology Project, the Dominican Republic project, and associated projects in Jamaica, Curacao, and Venezuela. In these projects, fossils are sampled following standardized procedures designed to document changes in marine biodiversity in tropical America over the past 20 million years. NMITA will establish the taxonomic foundation for ongoing identification of the collections by providing images and synoptic information on five taxonomic groups (bryozoans, corals, molluscs, ostracodes, benthic foraminifera). It will be important for standardizing nomenclature and recognizing taxa that are new to science, and it will provide a starting point for reconstructing the phylogenies of selected clades. Data for more than 2000 taxa and 7000 images will be entered in an enterprise relational database management system at the University of Iowa using a model patterned after the ASC Information Model for Biological Collections. The data include: (1) taxonomic authorship, synonyms, type specimens, and diagnostic morphologic characters; (2) images of representative specimens and associated museum catalog and measurement data; (3) distributional information. Illustrated glossaries of morphologic terms, character matrices, and computerized identification tools are being developed for corals and molluscs. Distribution maps and stratigraphic range charts will be produced using GIS software and other tools. Protocols will be developed for exchange of information with PaleoBank and the locality and stratigraphy database of the Panama Paleontology Project.
