About this website
| Background | Navigation | Collections | Photography | Acknowledgements | Authors |
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NavigationThe site is made up of 11 primary divisions under the headings: About, Geology, Maps, Correlations, Sections, Systematics, Images, Literature, Contact, Help, and Home. These divisions are accessible via links on a primary navigation bar at the top of each page, except the pages displaying the leaf images. Each page also contains a context-specific secondary navigation bar that provides access to subsidiary pages. On some pages a tertiary navigation bar is also present. Additional in-text links or interactive maps provide further navigation tools.
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The About division has the following subsidiary pages (links above):
Background - this provides the contract acknowledgement, the background to the project and outlines of the history of the various collections, fieldwork etc. that underpin the project.
Navigation - explains how the site is organised.
Collections - provides details of the various collections and why the information relating to the specimens varies across the site.
Photography - describes the technical aspects of the imagery from film stock, through scanning and digital imagery, to line drawing techniques.
Acknowledgements - A large number of people have contributed to assembling and recording the material figured here and their contributions are recognised.
Authors - Brief background biographical details of the authors are given.
This division provides maps and descriptions of the geology, both regional and local, relating to the various areas sourcing the plant fossil material. Links in the secondary navigation bar provide access to background information on energy reserves and the paleogeographic evolution of the Arctic.
A series of interactive locality maps cascade from a regional map showing the main areas where plant fossils have been recovered. Each area often consists of a series of subsequent maps providing details at successively higher spatial resolutions. Clickable links on the maps provide direct access to written descriptions of the localities, measured sections where available, and to images of the fossils found at each locality.
Here a series of interactive correlation charts provide links to pages describing the taxonomic composition of phytostratigraphic units or regional floras. This gives an overview of the component taxa within the phytostratigraphic units and the bases for regional phytostratigraphic correlations.
It is here that the measured sections are grouped so that assemblages can be placed in sedimentary environment context. Access is through tabulated links by location. All sections are also accessible via the interactive maps.
Here the various approaches to categorising, identifying and naming the specimens are outlined, including accounts of the terminologies used in descriptions.
These pages link directly to images of the individual specimens.
The links are arranged in tabular form by age, taxonomic names, collections, and collecton. These pages can also be accessed via interactive maps.
Specimen images are displayed at 750 pixels wide, which is adequate for most purposes. They appear in a page with a neutral ‘gray card’ type background as this is less tiring for inspecting monochrome images than either a white or black background. Specimen numbers, names and informal form identifiers accompany the image. The image display pages are opened as new pages so that several can be viewed and compared simultaneously subject to screen size.
The image display pages also have right sidebar links to the position on the pages where specimen descriptions and remarks are located if present. Links to high resolution photographs and line drawings of the specimens are given where these images are available. High resolution images are typically between 5 Mb and 8 Mb in size and are stored as .jpg files with minimum compression. They will, inevitably take a little while to download depending on internet connection speed. The .jpg format allows them to be opened in any browser. The high resolution images are overprinted to discourage use of the images in third party publications. High resolution images are displayed as new pages for comparison purposes. Notes relating to the specimen are also shown in the right sidebar where such notes are relevant.
The site is fully referenced throughout using the Harvard system and the references are stored in the literature page. The literature is arranged alphabetically by author and date and grouped by letter. Alphabet links at the top of the page lead directly to that letter group.
This is a single page providing an email contact of a person responsible for site maintenance. Useful for flagging up broken links.
This page provides simple explanations of FAQ type questions.
Although last in this list 'Home' is the start page and the link 'Lost world of the Arctic' is the gateway to a series of pages that are designed to be accessible to people with no specialist knowledge such as high school students and interested members of the public. The Arctic before the ice is a fascinating ‘Lost World’ that seems to be on the verge of returning, and so is of wide interest. Although primarily designed as a research resource this site documents the evidence upon which our understanding of that Lost World is based, and by providing easy access to the data it could be used more widely than just for research.