Digital Atlas of Ancient Life Reviews

by François-Marie Arouet

It only covers three periods (Ordovician, Pennsylvanian, and Neogene), and for those it only covers selected invertebrates in a few states in the eastern US, with a different set of states for each time period. It doesn't even have Pennsylvania as one of the states for the Pennsylvanian, funnily enough.

The content it has for those is a list of some of the invertebrates found there, but they're organised taxonomically, so you have to already know what genus something is in to look it up. The photos are very limited and often undiagnostic, and the descriptions are fairly technical, just what's easily available in free databases. Some of the information is inaccurate, or at the very least imprecise (like claiming that Rusophycus is recognised in rocks from the Cambrian up to the present, or having incomplete occurrence data).

The design is not especially helpful, requiring users to tap through multiple times for ichnotaxa due to a poorly imagined plan to categorise them like other taxonomic groupings. The least the developers could have done is built a dichotomous key for the limited specimens, time periods, and locations they cover, but it seems that not even that is included.

This is a free app, so an amateur paleontologist might still want to get it just to have something to look at, but don’t expect this to be a useful resource — it’s not.

by The SciO Times

Great potential, but lacking information and facts. There are hardly any fossils, and the ones that are mentioned are missing facts and data.

by Hemiarges

I second all opinions shared in françois-marie arouet's thorough review.

More than that, it's clear the authors never considered the mobile audience for this atlas.
• The mobile audience is undeniably folks in the field who likely don't know what Period's rocks they're looking at in the first place — much less the phylum of the fossil in front of them.
• The mobile audience is mostly folks looking at a possible fossil that is likely fragmentary or in a mode of preservation not represented in the Atlas's photos, which are instead presented in the minimally useful "single best specimen" manner of systematic paleontogical work. Speaking of the photos, why so tiny given the 100MB app size?
• The mobile audience wants to know something about the animal, not just a species name and a stratigraphic account. Not even a minimal paleobiological or paleoecological account is provided.
• The mobile audience knows one thing for sure: their exact geographic location. But DigitalAtlasofAncientLife fails to leverage GPS to help guide the user, and the locality maps are surprisingly incomplete, not showing any of the available formation-by-formation detail for geologic maps of these regions.

The existence of DigitalAtlasofAncientLife is clearly due to "app" being used as a buzzword in the author's' NSF grant. There is very little usefulness in what could have been an exciting and engaging app. Authors outside the scientific establishment could do a much better job, and hopefully some will. Moral of the story: Science is like sex — it's too important to be left to the professionals.

by 1/25/15

This is the worst app I've ever downloaded. Who in the hell gave this a positive review?

by CHEE£€€¥£€

They should definitely add more. And it only has three time zones. :(

by BJN2

It's a free app and version 1.0, so I would give it some credit if it worked. But it displays nothing for any of the three time periods.

by Zxzxzx!

I was thoroughly enjoying using DigitalAtlasofAncientLife but was extremely surprised when I tried to log in and an “account suspended” message appeared. Tried to find out why but no luck. Sure would like to know why….

by Zachspears

This is a great resource for quickly looking up specimens!

by CDoggie909

DigitalAtlasofAncientLife is perfect for anyone that loves fossils! It's so easy to use and a lot of fun too.

by Saucey And Wubs

I downloaded DigitalAtlasofAncientLife for my teenage son who is fascinated with examining fossils and their histories. Not only are the photos and maps very clear and descriptive, but DigitalAtlasofAncientLife is super easy to use, easily transitioning from fossil to fossil. He loves it!

by Mobester123

Easy to use and perfect for amateur paleontologists. I am in the construction trade and collect fossils in my spare time. I really like the mapping function and use DigitalAtlasofAncientLife all the time. I strongly recommend it and you can't beat the price.

by Jackie Van Asdlan

I found DigitalAtlasofAncientLife accidentally while looking up photos of fossils and loved it immediately. I found it easy to navigate with very nice photos. It was fun to explore and I feel I will be useful in my classroom. I plan on using it on a field trip I am planning. Thanks to the creators for a new, useful tool for teachers.

by Trilolight

Just got the new version of DigitalAtlasofAncientLife and really love it. I’d been a long time user of the previous version and the new version has great new graphics and interface, and the Cretaceous time period is an excellent addition. DigitalAtlasofAncientLife is an excellent tool for learning more about various types of fossils, what they look like and where to find them.

by Msfossil

This is a wonderful app for teaching older children and the public about the world of fossils. The information is interesting and educational. My children love it.

by MotherofDinos

The browse feature allows users to see the full set of species for each taxon in the three time periods. This makes a nice, quick way to navigate and identify specimens without working through the hierarchy. Good images and nice map feature for the focal areas.