home

What is Neotoma?

Neotoma is the scientific name (genus) for a North American rodent (woodrat or packrat) that collects objects like plant parts, bones, teeth, and insects and returns them to a midden (nest) where they can be preserved for tens of thousands of years. Neotoma is also the name of a centralized, multidisciplinary, relational database that, like a woodrat midden, stores and preserves data on paleoecological and paleoenvironmental proxies (e.g., plant macrofossils, pollen, bones, teeth, beetles).
Neotoma cinerea. Photo by Roger W. Barbour.
Neotoma Paleoecology Database and Community is an online hub for data, research, education, and discussion about paleoenvironments. Anyone with an Internet connection can access Neotoma.

The primary philosophy behind Neotoma is data sharing so that users can easily:

  • Discover: find information efficiently by searching the database on spatial, temporal, and metadata criteria
  • Explore: interactively browse and visualize live data and metadata
  • Share: get data and information in a variety of useful formats (e.g., downloads, reports, graphics)
Neotoma’s centralized structure facilitates interdisciplinary, multiproxy analyses and common tool development; discipline-specific data can also be easily accessed. Data currently include North American Pollen (NAPD) and fossil mammals (FAUNMAP).  Other proxies (plant macrofossils, beetles, ostracodes, diatoms, etc.) and geographic areas (Europe, Latin America, etc.) will be added in the near future.  Data are derived from sites from the last 5 million years.