Fossil Atmospheres: a case study of citizen science in question-driven palaeontological research.

ABSTRACT: Palaeontologists increasingly use large datasets of observations collected from museum specimens to address broad-scale questions about evolution and ecology on geological timescales. One such question is whether information from fossil organisms can be used as a robust proxy for atmospheric carbon dioxide through time. Here, we present the citizen science branch of 'Fossil Atmospheres', a project designed to refine stomatal index of Ginkgo leaves as a palaeo-CO₂ proxy by involving citizen scientists in data collection through the Zooniverse website. Citizen science helped to overcome a barrier presented by the time taken to count cells in Ginkgo samples; however, a new set of challenges arose as a result. A beta-testing phase with Zooniverse volunteers provided an

SUBMITTER: Soul LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6282081 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature