Opening the Fossil Record for Open Access Week | The Integrative Paleontologists

"Open Access Week was somewhere between hectic and insanely hectic for me. I was part of a research team (including fellow PLoS blogger Sarah Werning) that published an open access paper describing the smallest, most complete, and youngest skeleton yet known for the tube-crested dinosaur Parasaurolophus. Beyond the gee-whiz factor and the fact that one of my high school students found the fossil after I walked past it, the fossil provides some important information on how dinosaurs grew up. The paper was accompanied by a massive release of open data (including 3D scans of nearly the entire specimen via Figshare and high resolution images of the bone microstructure via Morphobank), as well as a dedicated website for the general public. I have blogged elsewhere about the experience before and after publication, so won’t say much more on that here. Instead, this post will focus on a few reflections / comments about the whole process ..."