Thanks Geoff for that link to a handy tool. I spend some time
developing geographic database structures and encouraging students and
professionals to manage biological information in proper object-oriented
databases. I have found several problems similar to what you describe
resulting from an underappreciation of:
1) The variety of cartographic datums (what strange word! A cartographic
datum is the single reference point, but there are many of them!)
2) Original collectors and curators dismissing the importance of
including metadata fields on labels and in data systems.
So I encourage worm folk everywhere to become a little more
geographically savvy! The WGS84 system we typically assume now when no
meta-data are provided didn't come into common use among non-GIS folks
until the 1990s and very few specimen tags record what coordinate system
was used. While it does not include all of the many hundreds of spatial
reference systems in existence, the EPSG registry
(http://www.epsg-registry.org/) will provide folks with some likely
alternatives if a type locality is nonsensical and they'd like to
compile a list of alternative candidates. Of course, we have little hope
of properly locating historical records which are still wrong, but
plausible.
Cheers,
Brian
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Paavo, PhD
Benthic Science Limited
595 Brighton Road
Westwood, Dunedin
New Zealand 9035
http://www.benthicscience.com/
Telephone/Fax +64-03-481-7899
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