Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFIND (Remote strategies for fossil finding: multispectral images and species distributional modelling applications for large-scale palaeontological surveys.)
Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2020-08-31
Fossils are the core of any paleontological study. Any specimen found in the field, represented by mineralized plant, walking tracks, bones or even teeth, represent the starting point from where the research activity begins. Also, the information related to each fossil is crucial for understanding a series of details, such as the faunal association, the paleoenvironment and all the events happened from the age of deposition to the fossil discovery. While we are assisting today of a general renovation of methods concerning the study of fossils after their recovery, we are basically still knotted to random discoveries when we are looking for new fossil localities. The REFIND project is addressing this limit through two approaches: developing a standardized workflow for mapping fossils from multispectral satellite imageries, and analyzing the distribution of species, questioning gaps within the reported paleontological record.
The PI joint the Vertebrate Paleontology Lab (Department of Earth Science) at the University of Oregon. She attended courses on Remote Sensing and Statistic for paleontologist, and the Lab meeting and Reading Lab activities. She maintained weekly appointments with the supervisor. The first year was devoted to the first objective, selecting the optical data for each of the four test localities (John Day Fossil Beds, Wadi el Hitan, Pisco Basin, and Gadoufaua). While most of the selected localities returned fossil bones large enough to be potentially detected by a satellite imagery, the John Day (USA) deposit consists mostly of fragmented bones. For this deposit, we opted to use photos recorded from a drone, performed in April and August 2019. At the Pisco Basin (Peru) and Wadi el Hitan (Egypt), multispectral imageries with the best resolution in commerce were available. In the first locality, multiple drone flights were also performed in January 2019, joining the Field School of the University of Pisa. In the case of Gadoufaua (Niger), we were not able to detect the exact position of the locality, and the locality was leave aside and it will be analyzed in 2022, analyzing the surface of the Petrified Forest (USA) instead. The locality in Arizona was visited by the P.I. in October 2018. Throughout the first year of activities, The P.I. extracted the spectral signatures of 124 fossils bones, logs and matrixes, using the facilities of the CAMCOR Lab.
The second main objective of the REFIND project was developed during the second year. The P.I. reorganized and implemented the database of the late Pleistocene fauna in Europe and North America, also adding three datasets of human presence for the comparison with the faunal distributions. The P.I. started to run analyses on size variation and distribution of American lions to project the results to the whole species. She visited the fossil collections at the Museum of the North (Fairbanks, Alaska) and Rancho la Brea (Los Angeles, California) to collect data.
In the two years spent at the University of Oregon, the P.I. learnt statistical approaches to optical multispectral imageries and how to manage raster and vectorial data for cluster classification. Also, she could survey and collect data from three of the most iconic fossil localities in the world. She could improve her skills of analyses of large datasets, using software platforms, a know-how she is going to apply to distributional estimation of extinct species.
She could discuss paleontological topics and promote the Marie Curie activities with the team at the University of Oregon and paleontologists from other countries and continents during international meetings, some of them co-organized with the North
Finally, she improved her skills for managing international projects with multiple tasks and objectives, in collaboration with two very different research institutions, and researchers with different background and international experiences.
The second main objective of the REFIND project was developed during the second year. The P.I. reorganized and implemented the database of the late Pleistocene fauna in Europe and North America, also adding three datasets of human presence for the comparison with the faunal distributions. The P.I. started to run analyses on size variation and distribution of American lions to project the results to the whole species. She visited the fossil collections at the Museum of the North (Fairbanks, Alaska) and Rancho la Brea (Los Angeles, California) to collect data.
In the two years spent at the University of Oregon, the P.I. learnt statistical approaches to optical multispectral imageries and how to manage raster and vectorial data for cluster classification. Also, she could survey and collect data from three of the most iconic fossil localities in the world. She could improve her skills of analyses of large datasets, using software platforms, a know-how she is going to apply to distributional estimation of extinct species.
She could discuss paleontological topics and promote the Marie Curie activities with the team at the University of Oregon and paleontologists from other countries and continents during international meetings, some of them co-organized with the North
Finally, she improved her skills for managing international projects with multiple tasks and objectives, in collaboration with two very different research institutions, and researchers with different background and international experiences.
This project has many potential impacts. First of all, it increases the effectiveness and efficiency of field work in remote regions. It aims to avoid cost-consuming activities on the field, like random walking on potential areas with no preliminary information of the ground, reducing waste of time and materials. At the same time, it reduces risks related to field work for the paleontological crew, restricting the area for the survey to only those localities with high probability to find fossils.
Second, the project has some effects on the basic good practices for managing fossils localities, allowing researchers and local administrations to know the real consistence of the fossils exposed on the ground or located in a territory, discouraging illegal acts related but not limited to the black market.
Finally, the REFIND project aims to develop awareness on local stakeholders and the general society, passing the idea that fossils are related to cutting edge science, like satellites and drones, and that they are part of our common heritage.
In particular, the first approach of the REFIND project allow researchers to obtain preliminary maps of potential exposed fossils, promoting a better managing of field work. The method can be applied of any taxonomic group regardless the geological age. Now, exploratory analysis is restricted to checking for outcrops, and for urban developing or anthropology, but through this project the method is adapted and applicable to the paleontological field, for detecting single fossil occurrence. While a first application will be released shortly for the Petrified Forest (AZ), additional results are expected to be published in 2022, regarding the mapping activities at the other localities considered in the project (Pisco Basin, Whadi el Hitan, John Day, Gadoufaua), testing several algorithms for classification.
Recently, increasing attention has been paid to surface analyses of extra-terrestrial planets and remote regions on Earth. Both the views have some outstanding potentials of checking for life and human illegal activities. Because the restrictions of international travelling in the last three years (due to the pandemic in the last two years and to concerns about international tensions in 2022), monitoring remote regions using indirect tools and procedures is acquiring more importance now than ever before. It allows to maintain contact between research institutions and paleontological heritages, part of them being included in the Unesco world list of human heritage. Moreover, the method developed by the REFIND project will guarantee researchers to be better prepared for future field expeditions, better balancing costs and risk for the crew, and maximizing effectiveness of fossil recovery.
Activities relater to the second approach, still in development, were dedicated to a deep review of available paleontological occurrence to create consistent time-bins for the analysis of species distribution in the late Pleistocene. Data have been organized and improved to run the analyses on 2022. We recognized specific niche-analogous species in Europe and North America. They are targeted for consider the gap in the record of potential localities, chosen because their flexible adaptability to both climate and humans, or their strict feeding needs and environmental requirements. They are: the European and American lions, European wolf and North American dire wolf, European leopards and couguar, cave bear and bear s.l. and reindeer and caribou.
Second, the project has some effects on the basic good practices for managing fossils localities, allowing researchers and local administrations to know the real consistence of the fossils exposed on the ground or located in a territory, discouraging illegal acts related but not limited to the black market.
Finally, the REFIND project aims to develop awareness on local stakeholders and the general society, passing the idea that fossils are related to cutting edge science, like satellites and drones, and that they are part of our common heritage.
In particular, the first approach of the REFIND project allow researchers to obtain preliminary maps of potential exposed fossils, promoting a better managing of field work. The method can be applied of any taxonomic group regardless the geological age. Now, exploratory analysis is restricted to checking for outcrops, and for urban developing or anthropology, but through this project the method is adapted and applicable to the paleontological field, for detecting single fossil occurrence. While a first application will be released shortly for the Petrified Forest (AZ), additional results are expected to be published in 2022, regarding the mapping activities at the other localities considered in the project (Pisco Basin, Whadi el Hitan, John Day, Gadoufaua), testing several algorithms for classification.
Recently, increasing attention has been paid to surface analyses of extra-terrestrial planets and remote regions on Earth. Both the views have some outstanding potentials of checking for life and human illegal activities. Because the restrictions of international travelling in the last three years (due to the pandemic in the last two years and to concerns about international tensions in 2022), monitoring remote regions using indirect tools and procedures is acquiring more importance now than ever before. It allows to maintain contact between research institutions and paleontological heritages, part of them being included in the Unesco world list of human heritage. Moreover, the method developed by the REFIND project will guarantee researchers to be better prepared for future field expeditions, better balancing costs and risk for the crew, and maximizing effectiveness of fossil recovery.
Activities relater to the second approach, still in development, were dedicated to a deep review of available paleontological occurrence to create consistent time-bins for the analysis of species distribution in the late Pleistocene. Data have been organized and improved to run the analyses on 2022. We recognized specific niche-analogous species in Europe and North America. They are targeted for consider the gap in the record of potential localities, chosen because their flexible adaptability to both climate and humans, or their strict feeding needs and environmental requirements. They are: the European and American lions, European wolf and North American dire wolf, European leopards and couguar, cave bear and bear s.l. and reindeer and caribou.