Home / Palaeobotanical Tools / Geostatistics

! S. Asche et al. (2023): What it takes to solve the Origin (s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques. Free access, arXiv.
! Note figure 1: Comprehensive array of experimental and computational techniques, along with conceptual bridges, which are primarily utilised in OoL studies.
"... We review the common tools and techniques that have been used significantly in OoL [origin(s) of life] studies in recent years.
[...] it spans broadly — from analytical chemistry to mathematical models — and highlights areas of future work ..."

! Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University: StatLib. This is a system for distributing statistical software, datasets, and information by electronic mail, FTP and WWW.

! CLAMP Online (Climate Leaf Analysis Multivarite Program). This site is the result of an ongoing collaboration between the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, and the Open University UK.
How you can use foliar physiognomy (leaf architecture) to determine ancient climates from fossil leaves or explore the relationship that exists between leaf form and climate. See especially:
! Teaching Materials.
Older CLAMP websites are available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine:
Robert A. Spicer, The Warm Earth Environmental Systems Research Group: Plant Fossils as Climatic Indicators. Go to: Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Programe (CLAMP). An introduction to the use of leaf architecture for determining past climatic conditions.

! Mike Conlon, Department of Statistics, University of Florida, Gainesville:
The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Statistics.
Websites outdated. Links lead to versions archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

G. Cumming (2013): The New Statistics: Why and How. In PDF, Psychological science.

Alan Dix, meandeviation.com: Statistics Tutorial.

Grégoire Dubois, Environment Institute TP 321, Environmental Monitoring Unit, Ispra (Va), Italy: AI-GEOSTATS. AI-GEOSTATS is mainly a mailing list which acts as a forum for the dissemination and discussion of all aspects of spatial statistics. Gives information about available software & shareware commonly used in spatial statistics.

Valerie Easton and John McColl, Centre for Applied Statistics, Fylde College, Lancaster University:
Statistics Glossary.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Brian J. Enquist et al. (2002): General patterns of taxonomic and biomass partitioning in extant and fossil plant communities. PDF file, Nature.

H. Failmezger et al. (2013): Semi-automated 3D Leaf Reconstruction and Analysis of Trichome Patterning from Light Microscopic Images. In PDF, see also here.

M. Foote and D.M. Raup (2010): Fossil preservation and the stratigraphic ranges of taxa. In PDF, Paleobiology, 22: 121-140.

! Michael Friendly, Statistical Consulting Service and Psychology Department York University. Useful things about statistical graphics, graphical methods for categorical data (mosaic displays, fourfold displays), visual statistics, etc. See especially:
Statistics and Statistical Graphics Resources.

GEOSTATISTICS. GEOSTATISTICS is an interdisciplinary newsletter published quarterly by the North American Council on Geostatistics.

GIGAcalculator.com (the site is owned and operated by Web Focus LLC). Free online calculators and converters. Go to:
! Statistics Calculators. This is a set of free online statistical calculators, accompanied with detailed explanations and formulas. Useful if you are just learning the concepts and terminology.

Good Calculators (by John Sanders and Andrew Stacy). Free calculators. See especially:
! Mathematics Statistics and Analysis Calculators.

W.A. Green, Palaeontologia Electronica Volume 9, Issue 2 (2006): Loosening the CLAMP: An Exploratory Graphical Approach to the Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program.

G.W. Grimm and A.J. Potts (2015): Fallacies and fantasies: the theoretical underpinnings of the Coexistence Approach for palaeoclimate reconstruction. In PDF, Clim. Past Discuss., 11: 5727-5754.

G.W. Grimm et al. (2015): Fables and foibles: a critical analysis of the Palaeoflora database and the Coexistence approach for palaeoclimate reconstruction. In PDF.

! Øyvind Hammer, Paleontological Museum, University of Oslo: PAST. PAST is a free, easy-to-use data analysis package aimed at paleontology. Inspired by PALSTAT, it includes common statistical, plotting and modelling functions, e.g. a spreadsheet-type data entry form, graph, scatter, histogram, ternary and survivorship plots, etc.
! PAleontological STatistics Reference manual Version 2.02. In PDF.

Clay Helberg, Chicago: Statistics on the Web. A list of statistics resources discovered on the World Wide Web.

Gene Hunt, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (website hosted by the Paleontological Society, Boulder): Evolutionary Patterns in Fossil Lineages. In PDF, lecture notes, PS Centennial Short Course.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here.

Phillip Ingram, Macquarie University, Sydney: Statistical Procedures.
Connections to descriptions of various statistical procedures applicable to the Earth Sciences.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

The International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication (supported by Athabasca University): Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research, Free Statistical Software.

! Kovach Computing Services: Other statistical sites. A variety of Internet resources dealing with statistics and data analysis.

! Michal Kowalewski, Department of Geological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA: Quantitative Paleobiology. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. Lecture notes about analysis based on quantitative data either derived from the fossil record, or any numerical model designed to explore paleontological or geobiological issues.

! H. Lee: Introduction to statistics. In PDF. Easy to understand introduction.

Richard Lowry, Department of Psychology, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY: VassarStats. Website for Statistical Computation. Software for calculating probability, linear correlation and regression, chi-square, t-procedures, ANOVA, and more.

! Norman MacLeod, Natural History Museum, London: PalaeoMath. Aspects of quantitative analysis in paleontological contexts. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
Each essay (from the Palaeontological Association Newsletter since 2004) is written for the novice data analyst, especially those who always wanted to gain knowledge of this subject, but never had the opportunity to do so and haven´t managed to make much progress through self-education. Including some MS Excel spreadsheets providing examples and data.

S. McKillup (2011): Statistics explained: An introductory guide for life scientists. In PDF. See also here.

! B.R. Moore et al. (2016): Critically evaluating the theory and performance of Bayesian analysis of macroevolutionarymixtures. In PDF, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 113: 9569–9574.

The Open Source Paleontologist (Blog): Statistics Software. An annotated link directory.

! The Palaeontological Association: Online analytical resources for palaeobiology. A annotated link list.

John C. Pezzullo, Departments of Pharmacology and Biostatistics at Georgetown University, Washington, DC: Web Pages that Perform Statistical Calculations. More than 550 links.
Website outdated. The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Alex L. Pigot et al. (2012): Speciation and Extinction Drive the Appearance of Directional Range Size Evolution in Phylogenies and the Fossil Record. Free access, PLoS Biol., 10: e1001260. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001260
See also here.

! K.M. Pryer et al. (2020): Using computer vision on herbarium specimen images to discriminate among closely related horsetails (Equisetum). Open access, Applications in plant sciences, 8.

! D.L. Rabosky et al. (2017): Is BAMM flawed? Theoretical and practical concerns in the analysis of multi-rate diversification models. In PDF, Syst. Biol., 66: 477–498. See also here.

Peter D. Roopnarine et al. (2007): Trophic network models explain instability of Early Triassic terrestrial communities. PDF file, Proc. R. Soc. B, 274: 2077-2086. See also here.

! The R Project for Statistical Computing. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS. R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, ...) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible.
Worth checking out: The tutorial: R Tutorial Series: Two-Way ANOVA with Pairwise Comparisons. Provided by R-bloggers.

S.R. Schachat 2022): Examining paleobotanical databases: Revisiting trends in angiosperm folivory and unlocking the paleoecological promise of propensity score matching and specification curve analysis. Free access, Front. Ecol. Evol., 10: 951547. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2022.951547.
"... Long-term trends in the fossil record of plants, encompassing their interactions with herbivores and with the environment, are of the utmost relevance for predicting global change
[...] in contrast to modern ecology and unlike various other paleontological disciplines, paleobotany has a limited history of “big data” meta-analyses.
[...] Here I demonstrate the importance of analytical best practices by applying them to a recent meta-analysis of fossil angiosperms. ..."

! StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, OK: Electronic Statistics Textbook. This textbook offers training in the understanding and application of statistics (including a glossary of statistical terms and a list of references).

Frank Tapson, Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching, University of Exeter: A Dictionary of Units. This website provides a summary of most of the units of measurement to be found in use around the world today (and a few of historical interest), together with the appropriate conversion factors needed to change them into a "standard" unit.

TexaSoft: Winks. Winks makes statistical data analysis understandable and easy to perform. Available for Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and NT.

! The Statistical Consulting Service (SCS), York University, Toronto: General statistical resources.

! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Statistics.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Bayesian statistics.
Bayessche Statistik (in German).

! The World Wide Web Virtual Library (The University of Florida´s Department of Statistics): Statistics.

! Karl Wuensch, Department of Psychology, East Carolina University: Statistical Resources Links Page.

! C. Yu et al. (2024): Artificial intelligence in paleontology. Open access, Earth-Science Reviews, 252.
"... The accumulation of large datasets and increasing data availability have led to the emergence of data-driven paleontological studies, which reveal an unprecedented picture of evolutionary history
[...] studies feature a wide range of techniques such as Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS), neural networks, transfer learning, and many other machine learning methods to automate a variety of paleontological research workflows ..."