The NOW Community

The NOW Community is the international working group dedicated to the NOW (New and Old Worlds) database of fossil mammals. The database is a global, curated resource that brings together fossil species occurrences with information on taxonomy, ecology, geological age and locality contexts, spanning the last 66 million years. It covers all continents, with particularly strong coverage of the Neogene of Eurasia. The community is responsible for continuously updating and integrating new data and scientific interpretations from the international research community. The community is coordinated by a General Coordinator, Indrė Žliobaitė, working with Associate Coordinators Isaac Casanovas-Vilar, Lars van den Hoek Ostende, Kari Lintulaakso and Juha Saarinen, alongside a Steering Group and an international Advisory Board. The Steering Group includes Ray Bernor, Isaac Casanovas-Vilar, Mikael Fortelius, Christine Janis, Kari Lintulaakso, Pasquale Raia, Juha Saarinen, Lars Werdelin, Lars van den Hoek Ostende and Indrė Žliobaitė. The community also has regional coordinators covering Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and other regions, as well as coordinators for stratigraphy, geology and taphonomy, traits, archaeology, taxonomy and ecomorphology, and palaeoecology. The NOW database is maintained and coordinated in collaboration with the University of Helsinki, where the General Coordinator is based. The community operates through a website (nowdatabase.org) that provides access to the database, news, publications, and information about the people involved. The database itself is structured around a locality table and a species table, relationally linked by a locality-species correlation table, with additions and updates tied to references. The aim is that each species record is backed by scientific evidence and continuously updated to reflect current knowledge. The NOW Community is a scientific, non-commercial initiative. It is not a company in the traditional sense, but it functions as a brand-like entity representing the database and its community of contributors. Its "products" are the database, the associated wiki, and the scientific publications and data products derived from it. The community relies on funding and acknowledgements from various sources, and it engages with related projects through contact persons. The community also maintains a NOW Wiki and archives of field data and dental ecometrics. In summary, The NOW Community is the organizational and social framework around the NOW database, a key infrastructure for palaeontological research on Cenozoic mammals. It is governed by a steering group and advisory board, coordinated by a general coordinator, and supported by a global network of regional and thematic coordinators.

The NOW (New and Old Worlds) database of fossil mammals was initiated by Mikael Fortelius, a palaeontologist at the University of Helsinki, in the 1990s. The database was created to compile and standardize information on Cenozoic mammal fossils and their localities, with a focus on the Neogene of Eurasia. Over time, it grew into a global resource covering all continents and the last 66 million years. The NOW Community emerged as the international working group responsible for curating and maintaining the database. It brings together researchers from around the world who contribute data, review records, and develop the database's structure and standards. The community is organized with a General Coordinator, Associate Coordinators, a Steering Group, an Advisory Board, and regional and thematic coordinators. In the 2000s and 2010s, the database expanded its coverage and improved its relational structure, linking localities and species through a correlation table. The community also developed the NOW Wiki and other resources. Funding and support have come from various sources, including the University of Helsinki and research grants. As of the 2020s, the NOW Community continues to update the database, integrating new data and scientific interpretations. The General Coordinator is Indrė Žliobaitė, and the community remains active in palaeontological research, providing open data and tools for the scientific community.

• Database initiated by Mikael Fortelius at the University of Helsinki

• NOW Community established as international working group

• NOW Wiki launched

• Indrė Žliobaitė serves as General Coordinator

A global, curated scientific database and community for Cenozoic fossil mammals.

• NOW Database

  Global curated database of Cenozoic fossil mammals and localities.

• NOW Wiki

  Wiki for documentation and community collaboration.

• NOW Field Archives

  Archives of field data.

• Dental ecometrics

  Data and tools for dental ecometrics.

1. 1NOW - Fossil Mammal Database - NOW communitynowdatabase.org
2. 2NOW - Fossil Mammal Databasenowdatabase.org
3. 3The NOW Community - Wikidatawikidata.org