View source for Fossil Insect Collaborative: A Deep-Time Approach to Studying Diversification and Response to Environmental Change

[[Category:TCN]]
= Digitization TCN: Fossil Insect Collaborative: A Deep-Time Approach to Studying Diversification and Response to Environmental Change  =

== Project Summary  ==

Fossil insects provide a unique deep-time record of ecological and evolutionary response to past environmental changes and therefore are invaluable for understanding the impacts of climate change on the current biodiversity crisis. Given current models of future climate change and the important role that insects play in human society (biodiversity, pests, pollination, vectors of disease) the ability to access these data and make predictions about future insect populations becomes even more urgent. The Fossil Insect Collaborative will make available all the major collections of fossil insect specimens in the United States by creating electronic specimen records consisting of digital images and associated collection data. 

The digitized fossil insect collections will be made broadly accessible to the research community, K-16 education, government and industry, the general public, and the media through the project website and a central site integrating all the paleobiological Thematic Collections Networks called iDigPaleo. Mobile apps and activities that allow a wide variety of users to experience and interact directly with the collections data will be developed. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (https://www.idigbio.org). 

== Current Research  ==
The fossil insect data are of great importance to 
understanding insect response to environmental 
change and patterns of biodiversity through time<br>
These fossils can aid in phylogenetic 
reconstruction, examinations of the evolution of 
morphological characteristics and in studies of 
overall patterns of diversification in deep time.

== Project Leadership  ==

''Project Sponsor'': University of Colorado at Boulder

''Principal Investigators (PIs):'' [mailto:dena@colorado.edu Dena Smith] (PI), Talia Karim (Co-PI)

''Collaboratoring Award PIs:'' Sam Heads, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; David Grimaldi, American Museum of Natural History; Alton Dooley, Virginia Museum of Natural History; Michael Engel, University of Kansas; Brian Farrell, Harvard University; Susan Butts & Christopher Norris, Yale University; Diane Erwin, University of California, Berkeley;

== NSF Award Number ==

[http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1305066&HistoricalAwards=false 1305066]

== Project Website  ==

http://fossilinsects.colorado.edu/

== Collaborators Map ==
https://www.idigbio.org/content/digitization-tcn-fossil-insect-collaborative-collaborator-map

== Project Collaborators  ==

American Museum Natural History<br>
Harvard University<br>
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Natural History Survey<br>
University of Kansas, Center for Research<br>
Virginia Museum of Natural History<br>
Yale University - Peabody Museum<br>
University of California Museum of Paleontology<br><br>
Unfunded participants:<br>
National Museum of Natural History<br>
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
<br>

== TCN related presentations  ==

iDigBio Summit IV FIC TCN Lightning Talk[https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kongcvi4ts750z/Karim%20FIC%202014.pptx?dl=0]


== iDigPaleo Teacher Workshop at Yale  ==

Eight middle school and high school teachers joined FIC PIs and educators at the Yale Peabody Museum on July 20 and 21, 2015 to work with the iDigPaleo database/web page and develop curricula using iDigPaleo in the classroom.

'''Presentations (recorded):'''<br>
coming soon <br>

'''Presentations: (Powerpoint)'''<br>
coming soon <br>


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== Amber Preparation Workshop  ==

Details coming soon!<br>