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

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

Fossil Insect TCN
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Project Summary
Current Research
Project Websites
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Publications

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 (iDigBio.org).

Current Research

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

Digitization of fossil insect collections can support studies related to :

  • Pest evolution
  • Parasitic insect co-evolution
  • Insect pollination
  • Insects as vectors of disease
  • Gigantism as a result of climate change.

Project Websites & Social Media

Fossil Insect Collaborative Website http://fossilinsects.colorado.edu

Facebook: FossilInsectCollaborativeDigitizationProject
Twitter: @FossilInsectTCN

Citizen Science & Outreach Projects

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.

Project Leadership

Project Sponsor: University of Colorado at Boulder (NSF Award 1305066)

Principal Investigators (PIs): 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

Project Collaborators

Map of Collaborating Institutions

American Museum Natural History (NSF Award 1304943)
Harvard University (NSF Award 1304992)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Natural History Survey (NSF Award 1304622)
University of Kansas, Center for Research (NSF Award 1304957)
Virginia Museum of Natural History (NSF Award 1304956)
Yale University - Peabody Museum (NSF Award 1305027)

Unfunded participants:
National Museum of Natural History
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

PENs:
University of California-Berkeley (NSF Award 1503671) Project wiki page

Protocols & Workflows

Amber Preparation Workshop: TCN members met at the AMNH on the 27th and 28th of February, 2015 to discuss digitization progress and learn how best to prepare and image specimens preserved in amber. AMNH project members David Grimaldi and Paul Nascimbene provided the group with an overview of amber and insect inclusions, and also gave tours of the collection, lab space, and equipment needed to properly prepare and preserve amber.

Publications

Arillo, Antonio, Enrique PEÑALVER, Ricardo PÉREZ-DE La Fuente, Xavier DELCLÒS, Julia Criscione, Phillip M. Barden, Mark L. Riccio, and David A. Grimaldi. “Long-Proboscid Brachyceran Flies in Cretaceous Amber (Diptera: Stratiomyomorpha: Zhangsolvidae).” Systematic Entomology 40 (2015): 242–67. doi:10.1111/syen.12106.
Heads, Sam, M. Thomas, and Yinan Wang. “A Remarkable New Pygmy Grasshopper (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae) in Miocene Amber from the Dominican Republic.” ZooKeys 429 (2014): 87–100. doi:10.3897/zookeys.429.8020.

Professional Presentations

iDigBio Summit V, 2015
iDigBio Summit IV FIC TCN Lightning Talk

Other project documentation

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