The Paleobiology Interest Group (Paleo) was established in 2015 to broaden the application of existing standards such as Darwin Core and the Access to Biodiversity Collections Data Extended for Geosciences (ABCDEFG) to accommodate paleobiological data. This will represent the second meeting of the interest group at a TDWG conference.
The group seeks to extend existing standards to meet the needs of paleobiology and to foster greater integration between neontology and paleontology in the study of biodiversity across space and deep time. Understanding long-term temporal patterns in biodiversity provides the context for interpreting modern changes in biodiversity and understanding the process responsible for these changes.

Employing biodiversity information standards, such as Darwin Core and ABCDEFG to paleobiology data requires addressing a broader range of metadata requirements and adapting best practices. The role of the Paleo group is to provide guidelines for deploying existing biodiversity standards to paleobiology and to propose extensions and modifications to existing standards to make them more amenable (and generalizable) for paleobiology.

The primary goals for the 2017 meeting of the Paleobiology Interest Group are: 1) to update TDWG members on the group's history and progress, 2) to conduct in-depth discussions and debate on common use cases for deploying standards in paleobiology, 3) to discuss and produce examples of Darwin Core and ABCDEFG entries for those use cases.
The annual meetings offer the best opportunity for bringing biodiversity information specialists together with disciplinary specialists in paleobiology to resolve questions and make concrete advances in broadening the application of biodiversity information standards in a new disciplinary domain. The 2017 meeting of the TDWG Paleo Interest Group will include a focus on the relationship between Darwin Core and ABCDEFG and how they can work together.