Cataloging Locations

[Ironhead42]

I am building spreadsheets to catalog and track my fossil collection and the collecting locations that I visit. This is what I have included for the localities I have hunted. Please tell me if there is anything that you would add.

 

I used a well published site location as an example.

 

COUNTY - Jack

LOCATION ID (State, First four letters of county, site # in that county) - TXJACK001

CITY - Jacksboro

ERA - Pennsylvanian-Virgilian

GROUP - Cisco

FORMATION - Graham

MEMBER - Finis Shale

GPS - 33.236212, -98.120671

NOTES - Lost Creek Dam site

 

Thank you all and have a great day!

[Ludwigia]

In Europe we tend to put the more detailed chronostratigraphy (Eon, Era, Series, Stage, Substage, Zone, Subzone, Horizon) before the lithostratigraphy. I could suggest you add this information if available.

[ClearLake]

That all looks pretty good.  In mine, I also include a short description of directions to the site.  That might be a bit redundant with the GPS coordinates, but I find it useful for certain sites ("roadcut at intersection of US25 and Smith rd. 2 miles N of Smithville" for example).  I also include a column for types of fossils found.  That can be as detailed or as general as you like. Mine is pretty general, but it helps me to know if I'm likely to find brachiopods there or plants or dinosaurs.  My memory is not as great as it used to be in just puling up all this info - haha.  One of my favorite aspects of a spreadsheet type database is they are easily formattable to post as a layer in Google Maps, but then I'm a map guy. so....

[Isotelus2883]

I like to use: BED/LAYER<MEMBER<FORMATION<GROUP<LOCAL STAGE<ICS STAGE<LOCAL/ICS SERIES

You could also draw a  section for your locality and include the stratigraphic level and number for collections made.

Edited January 9 by Isotelus2883

[Ironhead42]

1 hour ago, ClearLake said:

That all looks pretty good.  In mine, I also include a short description of directions to the site.  That might be a bit redundant with the GPS coordinates, but I find it useful for certain sites ("roadcut at intersection of US25 and Smith rd. 2 miles N of Smithville" for example).  I also include a column for types of fossils found.  That can be as detailed or as general as you like. Mine is pretty general, but it helps me to know if I'm likely to find brachiopods there or plants or dinosaurs.  My memory is not as great as it used to be in just puling up all this info - haha.  One of my favorite aspects of a spreadsheet type database is they are easily formattable to post as a layer in Google Maps, but then I'm a map guy. so....

I didn't think about adding a column for types of fossils found. Probably because I usually include this on my Google Maps entry for the site.

[jpc]

I also have a column for landowner.  But then, I deal with a lot of private landowners.  

 

I also like to have a column for lithology... what type of rock was it found in.  

[Coco]

You did not put a location for the Latin binominal name on your model tag, but I assume you will provide the location for that.

 

Coco

[jpc]

7 hours ago, Coco said:

You did not put a location for the Latin binominal name on your model tag, but I assume you will provide the location for that.

 

Coco

coco... this is for the fossil locality, not the individual fossils.  : )

 

[Coco]

Oh yes @JPC, I forgot the meaning of the title ! Thank you

 

Coco

[Ironhead42]

Thank you for all the feedback everyone. I will be adding a bunch of columns to my spreadsheet.