Tutorials

This tutorial is designed orient new and prospective data providers to using Symbiota, a tool for managing and publishing fossil specimen data.

If you are unfamiliar with Symbiota, consider reviewing this page about the Paleo Data Portal, which is an example of a Symbiota portal created for managing fossil specimen data.

Learn how to access key features in Symbiota

SymbiotaSymbiota is an adaptable, customizable software that enables self-defined and self-governed communities of practice to create collaborative biodiversity data portals. Data in web-based Symbiota portals can be instantly searchable via public search features, and there are many tools to connect these data to other collections and to aggregators (e.g., iDigBio, GBIF). Symbiota portals include many tools for efficient digitization, data import, and data mobilization, as well as duplicate matching tools (across and within collections), CSV and Darwin Core Archive import and export options, and linking tools to external sources or specimen records. is a low-barrier-to-entry data mobilization platform for fossil collections, and you can get started easily. The following presentation provides an overview of Symbiota’s most essential features used to access, manage, and publish fossil specimen data. More comprehensive documentation is available in Symbiota DocsA central repository for documentation regarding Symbiota-based data portals. This site is maintained by the Symbiota Support Hub, but all Symbiota users may contribute. Information on Symbiota Docs complements documentation on the Paleo Data Knowledge Hub about using Symbiota for fossil specimens..

Next steps

1) Learn how to manage specimen data using Symbiota

Carefully review this guide before contributing fossil specimen data to a Symbiota portal.

If you maintain existing digital catalog records in a spreadsheet, this information can be imported into Symbiota. Data providers should review the data formatting guide prior to ingesting fossil specimen records into Symbiota.

2) Develop a digitization workflow

Once oriented to Symbiota’s key features and requirements for managing fossil specimen data, this guide will help you develop a strategy for digitizing your fossil specimens using a Symbiota portal.