Fishes of Texas project: compilation, normalization and quality control of museum data
Year: 2015
Type: other
Abstract: The Fishes of Texas Project (www.fishesoftexas.org) compiled Texas fish species occurrence records from 42 museum collections and applied rigorous quality control and data normalization/standardization to result in 124,415 specimen-based records collected between 1851 and 2010 by 5,924 collectors. 88,348 records from 7,868 unique Texas inland localities were manually georeferenced with placement error estimates. 8,460 Gulf of Mexico records and 18,923 inland records from neighboring Mexican and U.S. states have been partially processed. Georeferenced records were plotted and 4,107 geographic outliers flagged as potential identification or location errors. Most flagged specimens, and often related original documentation, have now been examined and identifications corrected or confirmed. The value of such specimen-based vouchering of collections and compiling and normalizing large data sets was quickly demonstrated by discovery of 31 species occurrences in major river basins where they were previously not believed to occur. The online database can be queried in diverse ways, mapped, and records downloaded. Also online are a large set of high quality fish images, original field notes, specimen photos, detailed species distribution models based on the data, accounts of species' biology and ecology, video time-lapse distribution maps, and digital identification keys.
Authors: Dean Hendrickson, Adam E. Cohen, Ben Labay
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Aquatic Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W2625129350