Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/Resources

Wikipedia-internal resources

• Request a cladogram at the WikiProject Tree of Life Cladogram requests
• Request a map at the Map workshop
• Request a copy edit from the Guild of Copy Editors

How to find the fulltext of a paper

Note: If the paper is a chapter in a book or part of an edited volume, do separate searches for the chapter title and the book title.

1. Search for the paper title in Google Scholar.
2. Check the Wikipedia Library: [1]. Note: Many papers don't show up in the regular search, and it may be necessary to access the collection (e.g., "Science Direct") that includes the required journal to get the paper. For example, the journal Science is included in the collection "JSTOR", while many palaeontology books are included in the collection "Project MUSE".
3. Do a regular Google search for: "paper title" pdf
   
4. For books, especially older ones, check the library of the Internet Archive. A free account is required in order to borrow books.
5. Check Google Books.
6. For old papers that are in the public domain, check the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
7. Ask at our WikiProject talk page or on our Project Discord server; chances are high that one of the project members can help.
8. Ask at Wikipedia's Resource Exchange.

Web resources

• Palaeontological database for taxonomic and formation searches. Note: This database can be unreliable and should generally not be used as a source, but can be a starting point for a literature research. When opening a genus page (such as that of [2]) and clicking on "Show more details" (leading to this page), the list of assignments could be used to demonstrate and source a scientific consensus about the classification of the genus in a particular group.

Web resources of free images and 3D models

• Openverse. Allows to search for freely licensed images, including from Inaturalist, Flickr, and other services. Set the filter on the right to only show Wikipedia-compatible free licences (Public Domain; CC0; CC BY; and CC BY-SA).

The following scientific data repositories contain many free images and 3D models (see here for details).

• Figshare
• Zenodo

The following museum databases may contain freely licenced images of palaeontological specimens:

• Smithsonian Institution Collections
• University of California Museum of Paleontology Specimen Search
• Natural History Museum Data Portal
• Museums Victoria Collections
• Estonian Museum of Natural History Fossiilid
• Museum of New Zealand Collections

Other websites with freely licenced images:

• Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week (only original content is freely licenced)