Corresponding author: Ricardo Paredes (
Academic editor:
The accuracy on taxonomic determinations of palaeontology collections may have significant consequences in estimations of organism diversity through time. This justifies the need of taxonomic standardization of palaeontological collections. The perception of palaeodiversity through Phanerozoic time has significantly improved since the Sepkoski showed the marine invertebrate taxonomic data in diversity graphs, organized in orders (
Palaeontological museum collections are known to be one of the largest repositories of fossil data. Taxonomic standardization of palaeontology collections in the context of a museum should:
Engage taxonomists in revising fossil clades of the museum material; Promote networking and museum researcher peers involved in similar collections activities; Avoid replication of errors in taxonomic determinations (e.g. exclusive use of Web-based databases sources of taxonomy); Use type material to compare with the collection specimens; Critically analyse previous taxonomic determinations on old labels and associated specimen information; Promote the accessibility of the collection to the research community; Emphasize digitisation of specimen catalogue records as well as 2D imaging of the specimens.
These practices are valuable complements to current methodologies adopted to improve the taxonomy of collections, resulting in more reliable data which further enables museum-based research focusing on palaeodiversity estimations.
Ricardo Paredes
Biodiversity_Next 2019