Fossil Collection Checklist Template

[Paleoworld-101]

Hey guys,

 

So i was bored recently and decided to put together a quick taxonomy 'checklist' of all the fossil groups and their ages that i have personally collected. This simple idea quickly spiralled out of control and after a couple hours i had put together a comprehensive spreadsheet showing all the major groups of organism that i have collected fossils from, broken down by the geological period or epoch that they originate from. The goal was to see visually how much of the fossil record i had actually sampled with my collecting and also see which 'gaps' i had yet to fill in! Turns out there is quite a lot!! I found it a fun little exercise and thought i would share it with you guys as perhaps some of you might want to do something similar with your own fossil collections. I restricted mine to fossils i had found myself rather than bought.

 

The fields that are filled in with 'N/A' means that the particular group of organism was not present at that time in history so these don't really count towards the total area that can be collected (though some of my choices for when particular groups appear/disappear could be debated i'm sure). I have also tried to be as all-encompassing as possible by listing just about every major group of organism, but i'm sure some minor ones are left out and you may choose to modify my group names or add/remove some to suit your liking. Overall though i think it's a pretty decent coverage of the Phanerozoic fossil record. 

 

Here is a link to the blank spreadsheet that i have put up on google docs, which you can download and then fill in yourself if you wish: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/172Q5Mg1xax7jroRYoBm_jVXgJPiRx-KxbsOCWFkuuaE/edit?usp=sharing

 

As an example to show you what it looks like once filled in i have posted mine below (both a zoomed out picture of almost the whole thing and a closer one of part of the sheet that is more readable). Click on either image and view it full size to read it better if needed. Maybe someday i'll get to fill 'collected' in the whole thing?!

 

If anyone else does do this feel free to screenshot it and post the image in this thread, i'm curious how much others have managed to collect!

 

Cheers,

Nathan

 

 

 

[Ridgehiker]

Looks like fun. This type of exercise helps to bring perspective to your collection and gives incentive to fill in be gaps.

 

Just a note.  Taxonomy has 'equivalent' level kingdoms, phyla, etc. 

 

There is no special division of vertebrates and invertebrates.  The division is  between multiple phyla of which chordata ( vertebrates) is just one of many.  A brachiopod is no more related to an echinoid than it is related to a human. 

 

If you collected stamps, you would likely have the collection made up of countries.  Vertebrates is just one country...like China.  Also, a sea star would not be a country (phylum) but a province (class) like Ontario...not Canada (phylum).

 

Anyways, a taxonomic chart would be another way to organize your collection.  This way you are comparing apples to apples and not to oranges.

[Paleoworld-101]

9 hours ago, Canadawest said:

Looks like fun. This type of exercise helps to bring perspective to your collection and gives incentive to fill in be gaps.

 

Just a note.  Taxonomy has 'equivalent' level kingdoms, phyla, etc. 

 

There is no special division of vertebrates and invertebrates.  The division is  between multiple phyla of which chordata ( vertebrates) is just one of many.  A brachiopod is no more related to an echinoid than it is related to a human. 

 

If you collected stamps, you would likely have the collection made up of countries.  Vertebrates is just one country...like China.  Also, a sea star would not be a country (phylum) but a province (class) like Ontario...not Canada (phylum).

 

Anyways, a taxonomic chart would be another way to organize your collection.  This way you are comparing apples to apples and not to oranges.

 

I'm well aware of taxonomic resolution. It is tailored for ones specific interests and biased towards the most recognisable and preservable groups. I'm a vertebrate person so instead of just lumping everything into Chordata if i stuck with phyla only, i've gone and subdivided into the main general groups that i am interested in. It's just a template, modify and alter the names according to your liking as stated in the OP. You could surely do endless breakdowns for everything right down to order or even family but the sheet would quickly become quite massive. Already it ended up bigger than i first intended. Like i said, it started as a quick exercise i chose to do for a bit of fun. Treat it as such and try not to get bogged down in the details. 

[jpc]

This looks like a fun little project for after i retire.  

 

I like the stamp collecting analogy.

[Wrangellian]

Good idea, I've had the germ of the idea in my head for a while now but never got to this point.

I think if I restricted the entries to things I have collected personally, as opposed to bought/traded, it would be heavily biased to Cretaceous inverts..

[SailingAlongToo]

@Daleksec You should do this to help inventory your ever growing collection.