Palsys.org: an open-access taxonomic and stratigraphic database of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts

Peter K. Bijl*, Henk Brinkhuis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

It is with great pleasure that we introduce palsys.org (https://palsys.org/genus/, last access: 8 December 2023), a fully open-access taxonomic, stratigraphic and image database of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts. Palsys.org started as the in-house database of the Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology (LPP) Foundation over 30 years ago. It is now owned by Utrecht University and has been expanded and transformed into a public online platform for use in research and education. Palsys.org includes the taxonomic descriptions of genera and species of organic walled dinoflagellate cysts, from the (often translated) literature, and emendations and synonymy, mainly following Williams et al. (2017) and the stratigraphic calibrations from DINOSTRAT (Bijl, 2022), and has around 25ĝ€¯000 images of species. Here, in this launch paper, we explain the history of the database, present its current functionalities and explain our set-up of the data quality control. We call upon the community to help us keep palsys.org up to date and complete by, for example, by sending additional information, imagery and feedback in general through the platform. Palsys.org brings dinoflagellate micropaleontology in line with the open-science principles of modern academia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)309-314
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Micropalaeontology
Volume42
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

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Funding

Palsys.org ( https://palsys.org/genus/ , last access: 8 December 2023) started in the 1990s as a Microsoft Access database template called PALSYS at an Utrecht University (UU)-embedded geo-consultancy, the Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology (LPP) Foundation. It was designed to host taxonomic, stratigraphic and image data of micropaleontological species and was supported by significant grants from industry. The primary source of its content has always been the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Many international colleagues contributed willingly and generously to the ever-growing image database with copyright-free content (see the “Acknowledgements” at the end of the paper). This, together with the UU and LPP databases, now results in  25 000 images captured by mid-2023. Funding for the development of PALSYS had been provided by the LPP Foundation from the 1990s until 2000 and from 2012 until 2019. From 2000 until 2012, TNO gave in-kind contributions to the database content of PALSYS. Several institutes 15 have contributed since 2012 to the transformation of PALSYS to palsys.org. These include the Department of Earth Sciences and Physical Geography of Utrecht University, Heidelberg University, GNS Science in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and the Dutch Geological Sur20 vey. Financial contributions by the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP) and the Micropaleontological Society (TMS) made it possible to make palsys.org open access.

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