PaleoTax - a database program for palaeontological data
PaleoTax is a Windows-based relational database program to record, analyse, and output palaeontological data. The program is taxon-based and handles taxonomic, stratigraphic, and geographic data. Its structure is relational and subdivided into literature, stratigraphy, geography, sample material, taxonomy, and literature citations. It encompasses 39 tables and 254 data fields. Additional tables and fields can be added, depending on the user's needs. The edit forms, which can also be modified, are not part of the program. The main purposes of PaleoTax are to record data obtained from the literature and to serve as an information system. Once they have been recorded, data can be sorted and searched for under various aspects. PaleoTax generates reports in ASCII, RTF, and HTML for the most important tables, such as species, genera, and localities, and can export the whole database as a large catalogue in the form of the classic Fossilium Catalogus or as an Internet application. Data analysis is an important part of PaleoTax: a program interpreter provided with PaleoTax makes it easy for the user to analyse the data and to display the results as graphs. The analytical results can also be exported as ASCII files. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
palaeontology catalogues taxon research