I looked at the US over the Mesozoic, and it's interesting how fossil concentrations seem to be a function of modern state boundaries. For example, Nebraska has almost nothing, but all the states north, south, and west of it are covered. Idaho and Oklahoma tell similar stories. I wonder if it's related to dig permits or paleontology-strong university locations?

Paleontology is often tied to construction. A locale may require a paleontological survey during construction. So as the earth is dug up someone will be onsite to monitor for fossil remains.

If some are found then construction could be halted while the fossils are removed.

The same is also true of archaeology - you just don't usually need dig as deep to find artifacts.

Oh, cool. I would have guessed it was inversely related to crop agriculture--the states with productive flat land seemed to have dramatically fewer finds than their rugged neighbors.

In case anyone wants a fun ML problem:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/anemone-computer-m...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/anemone-computer-m...

Actually, my first thought about this was, how can the public add to it? For example, I have found fossils in Western New York. My find is not documented anywhere, and I am not sure if it would be valuable knowledge to know what and where I found it, but being able to share my own finds might help complete the picture. It would be like crowdsourcing the problem. If they allowed people to upload info (albeit, unverified), it could be shown as a layer and verified over time maybe?

In any case, this is very cool, and as a fossil enthusiast, I am super excited to see it!

I love history on a map!

Here's a littler something I've been working on, more focused on human history than natural history: https://alpha3.histori.city/

it's kind of a mashup of Wikipedia + Map + Time Machine.

It's all open source. Still a very early release & definitely some rough edges, but thought maybe it's ready enough to share. all feedback very much appreciated.

Your work looks interesting. Is there a user guide or sth like that?

just the online help for now, hit the question icon in the top right. let me know what you'd like to see in a user guide :)

This is actually a really interesting project, I love a good chart.

This is a very big deal for the field of paleontology! A lot of scientists are excited by this. Equivalent of the human genome project, but for really old rocks!