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Here's another copy of the previous Paleo21 posting for those of you who
might have missed it the first time.
Norm MacLeod
----------
Because of PaleoNet's technical glitches over the last week or so we were
not able to update the community on progress at the Paleo21 meeting as
often as we would have liked. On behalf of the organizers I'd like to thank
all those who responded to the first issues summary. Your comments are
valued and have been added to the comments provided by the meeting
delegates. To extend this discussion, the following represent a series of
"pan-paleontological" raised by delegates during the meeting topic group
discussions. These are posted on PaleoNet for the information of the global
paleo. community and to invite comment/initiate discussion. Please let us
know if you agree/disagree that these issues are important
problems/opportunities for paleontology in the coming century. Are there
other issues that should be raised? Are some of these issues more important
than others? (Which ones?)
Many reviews of the Paleo21 meeting will appear in journals, newsletters,
etc. during the coming months. From my point of view, however, the meeting
was a genuine success. Virtually everyone came away with enthusiasm for the
projects proposed at the meeting and (perhaps renewed) enthusiasm for the
future of paleontology.
Norm MacLeod
----------
Pan-Paleontological Issues
Image-Outreach (already posted)
- Have we communicated enough with non-paleontologists?
- Have we communicated enough with the scientific community?
- Is paleontology outward looking?
- Underrepresentation of paleontology in paleoclimatology/global change,
biodiversity; relevance to issues surrounding release of genetically
altered organisms (see interdisciplinary)
- Greater political and media savvy.
- Lack of respect/understanding of what we do.
- Value added case histories.
- Public outreach-- capitalization on current popularity; use popularity to
inspire youngsters towards paleontology.
- Public outreach-- improve presentations in museums (external experts
input/support museum programs).
- Upgrade science literacy via the media using paleontological news
- Dispel the misconception that "good, quality" science is limited to
scientific journals whereas, "bad, poor quality" science is understandable
and published in popular outlets
- Dealing with electronic publishing: who pays the costs?
- Once scientific material appears on the web (presumably non-peer
reviewed)....can the same material be published in peer-reviewed journal
(electronic or traditional)?
Human Resources-Education
Training: students
- Who trains new generation of paleontologists?
- Students need to be prepared to market themselves continuing education in
other disciplines for paleontologists?
- Need for applied paleontology short courses
- Need to broaden paleontological expertise into new areas and in other
fields. specialization versus generalization (trends in overspecialization
in competent biostratigraphers)
International
- Need to assist eastern Europe and FSU and other developing countries
Education
- Need to provide training for ourselves, our colleagues, our students
(them, you and us)
Funding-Resources
- Are resources supporting paleo increasing, stable, or decreasing?
(traditional vs. new sources).
- More funding going to interdisciplinary research, less to lone
paleontologists.
- Strengthen fundamental research.
Databases & Collections
Databases
- Need to save data captured over hundreds of years. Paper sources of
information will deteriorate over time.
- Need for training in appropriate effective use of data acquisition/
analysis/databases/hardware/software.
- Need for better technology transfer industry <---> academics.
- Need to develop systematic archiving (databases) of all categories of
fossil information
-Need for access to information; especially digital data bases; improve
efficiency of data collection via technology
Paleoinfromatics
- Need to evelop a global information technology architecture for
paleontology to link, search, and retrieve our (and their) data
- Need for a central international electronic data repository for paleontology
- Need to build an over-arching data structure to facilitate Earth System
History work (link data systems)
Collections
- Need for statement on ethics of acquisition
- Need to evaluate role of collections management
- Need to save data legacy
- Need for agreement that collections are a natural resource
- Need to address the problem of orphan collections
Regulation
- International movement/trade/sale of fossils.
- Compendium of international laws on aquiring, ownership, and
transportation of fossils.
Mission
- How is paleontology changing?
- Maintaining diversity approaches and disciplines
- Certification
- Context of life has changed (change in Earth system through time;
different settings/contexts over earth history)
- What is paleontology? (astrobiology-- broadening the context to include
non-"fossil" evidence/issues, such as geochemical signals)
- Getting at the fundamentals of evolution (processes, mechanisms, etc.);
evolution in the "Anthropozoic Era"
- Advance taxonomy
- Emphasize power of deep time
- Quality of the record
- Systematics is critical to the future of paleontology ("keep flame alight")
Interdisciplinary Aspects of Paleontology
- Paleontology and earth systems history
- Proactively get into geohistory programs (multidisciplinary)
- Integration with other disciplines/new partnerships
- Link between paleontology and molecular biology
- Interaction of process and state (how do biological and physical
processes lead to discrete state changes? relationship between genetically
continuous life history and potentially continuous/discontinuous
physical/earth system changes?)
___________________________________________________________________
Dr. Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (E-mail)
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277
E-mail: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk
___________________________________________________________________
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