An OU professor partnered with professors at University of Kansas, San Jose State University and OU students to digitalize fossil collections.
For some students, the only fossil knowledge they have is what they have learned from watching Jurassic Park.
For a group of Ohio University students, however, they have so much knowledge they could create a whole app about fossils.
Alycia Stigall, a professor of geological sciences, worked with professors from University of Kansas and San Jose State University to digitalize fossil collections and make them accessible through a website and the mobile app, Digital Atlas of Ancient Life, which helps people identify different fossils.
Stigall also worked with many OU students, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, for the project.
“The idea with the project overall was to take the data that we have, digitize it, so that every specimen has a latitude, a longitude, a geologic time for what stratigraphic or what rock layer did it come from and information about what species it came from,” Stigall said.
Adriane Lam, a former OU graduate student who worked on the app, said the app includes the most common fossils found around the Cincinnati area.
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“It doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet or you don’t need to be in range of cell service to look at the fossils,” Lam, who is a doctoral student in the department of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said. “It’s all downloaded in the one app. So you can actually take this in the field with you and identify fossils. It’s a great resource and we’re pretty excited about it.”
Lam said she had a "ton of fun" working on the project.
“I love fossils 'cause that’s what I do,” she said. “Getting to work with them and photograph them is actually really fun. I had never done that before.”
She added that she worked to expand the website, prepare information to be part of the app and train undergraduate students also working on the project.
“But really probably the best part for me was training these undergraduates and working with them and seeing them have an interest in paleontology,” Lam said. “They really just came alive with their projects.”
Robert Ahuja, who is a consultant for Sogeti USA in the Columbus area, was involved in the project as an undergraduate studying information and telecommunications systems. He said he photographed the specimens and integrated them into the website as well as created diagrams.
Ahuja said he hasn’t had as interesting of a project since working on the app.
“Now I’m actually shocked that within two years, ... they were able to have it out on the iOS store,” he said.
The app isn't just for researchers, the general public can use it too, Lam said.
Stigall said the app would be great way for kids to get excited about science.
“Kids love to think about how life was like before,” Stigall said. “Trying to capture that and retain that enthusiasm for the natural world into later adolescence and adulthood is something, I think, is really important for the world and our community and our country.”
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