In modern scientific researches of biological direction the geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly used. For example, GIS technology is successfully applied in the study of patterns of spatial and temporal distribution of biological objects with taking into account the unique features of the environment. Typically, a GIS is used for the analysis of current events and / or the future forecast, but they are also useful for the study of the fossils, living conditions in the distant past, changes in biodiversity and for determining historical patterns of biosphere evolution.
Convenience of GIS for integrated paleontological studies is due to the combination of database management systems functionality, editors of raster and vector graphics and a variety of analytical tools.
Over the last decades of paleontological researches a huge number of fossils belonging to a variety of species of animals, plants and microorganisms has been found. For a comprehensive qualitative analysis of this information it is not enough to draw on the paper map a certain amount of points. Maximum efficiency of the analysis can be achieved by creating a database and its integration with GIS. But if not so long ago each individual researcher or a research institute tried to do their own, as a rule, small databases containing information gathered only by them, but now there is a fundamentally new approach to automate many operations and combine the efforts of many scientists and research teams from all over the world. The projects that implement in practice, such approaches already exist. Paleobiology Database (Paleontological database) can be considered as one of them, 350 specialists from 133 institutions in 24 countries took part in this work. Currently this database contains information on more than a million found fossils, and it is open and available for use under the license of Creative Commons.
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