How to:
Select Genera using Drop down menus:
1. Select desired phylum using drop down menu (Figure 1A). Once you select a phylum, the class
box is populated (Figure 1B).
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
2. In the class box you can select either one or multiple classes. Once you have selected the
desired class(es), the order box is automatically populated (Figure 2A). Once the order box is
populated, select the desired order(s) using the same method (Figure 2B).
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
3. In order to populate the genus box you must click the “click to get genera” button below the
order box (Figure 3A). You must then select the desired genera either by clicking the “select all
genera button” below the genus box or by selecting genera within the box using the mouse
(Figure 3B). Note* You may click the “click to get genera” button at any point during the above steps and genera
will be populated from the last selected group. For instance, once you have selected the class Anthozoa, you may click
the “click to get genera” button to populate the genus box with all genera in that class.
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Figure 3A
Figure 3B
4. Once genera have been selected they can be moved into the “Genus Listings” box by clicking the
“Add Genera” button to the right of the genus box. To add more genera from another phylum,
repeat the above process and click “Add Genera” again; this will add the new selected genera
into the “Genus Listings” box with the genera already selected.
Genera within the “Genus Listings” box can be manipulated by using the buttons near the
top of the box. You may select genera using either the mouse or by clicking the “select all”
button. The “Sort” button sorts all the genera within the box alphabetically.
5. Once you have the desired genera for graphing in the “genus listings” box, click the “graph”
button to be transferred to the graph options page.
Select genera using free form search:
1. Type either part or all of a genus name in the search box (Figure 1A) under the “free form
search” heading underneath the down-drop menu and click “search” button (Figure 1B).
Note* You cannot hit the enter button on your keyboard to initiate search.
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
2. Select the desired genera using either your mouse or the “select all genera” button beneath the
search results box (Figure 2A). To transfer the selected genera to the “genus listings” box click
the “add genera” button located next to the free form search (Figure 2B).
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
3. To select the entire compendium, click the “full compendium” button beneath the search results
box. The full compendium of genera will appear in the search results box. Warning* Because of
the large size of the compendium, slow internet connections may make this process take a
minute or so.
Understanding Listings in the Genus Listings box:
1. The listings of genera in the genus listings box shows the following information in this order:
a. Genus; Phylum; Class; Order; FAD (First Appearance Datum); LAD (Last Appearance
Datum); and genus identification number (a unique # for the database).
Graphing Selection:
1. Once you have clicked the “graph” button at the top or bottom of the genus listings box, you will
be transferred to the graph options page and your selection placed in the selected listings box
on that page.
2. You may then choose between a DOX type graph or a stratigraphic range type graph. Note* Both
the Period Graphs and Special graphs have pre-programmed genera selected; no selected genera are necessary.
Graphing DOX graphs:
1. Once your selected genera are in the selected listings box on the graph page, you may begin
choosing options for your DOX type graph.
2. You may select any combination of Diversity, Origination, or Extinction graphs (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Figure 3
3. You must then select either the “rate” or “count” option (Figure 3). See the “Terms” Glossary in
the Help Menu for more information about these options.
4. Time options: With a count style graph you may choose either a relative time scale (Period,
Epoch, or Stage) (Figure 4A) or an absolute time scale. For the absolute time scale you must
choose the beginning and end dates (using integers between 550 and 0 MY (Million years ago))
as well as the time interval for which genera will be counted (any integer between 5 and 50 MY)
(Figure 4B).
Figure 4A
Figure 4B
5. The labels option allows you to choose whether or not you want number labels above data
points in the graph.
6. Once you have selected all your options, click the “graph” button underneath the DOX graph
options.
DOX Graph Results:
1. The graph results will appear in a separate tab in your browser window.
2. If you chose to graph more than one DOX (for instance if you selected both the Diversity and
Origination options); these graphs will appear as separate tabs within the page, labeled by their
type. Example below is genera from the Classes Tabulata and Rugosa.
3. There are two download options available once you have created a (rate) DOX graph. The
“Download/Print Graph” option (located beneath the graph) will open the graph in a new tab;
where you can right-click and choose to save the image, or print the graph using your browser’s
print option. This option is indicated below with a red arrow.
The “Download CVS File of Genus Data” (indicated with green arrow) will also open a new tab,
with a list of the genera used to produce the graph along with the following data about each
genus:
a. Genus ID #, Genus Name, Phylum, Class, Order, FAD Period abbreviation, FAD Stage
abbreviation, FAD absolute datum, LAD Period abbreviation, LAD Stage abbreviation,
and LAD absolute datum.
Data will appear similar to the figure above. These data can be saved and then imported
into Excel, where you can examine genera details in a more convenient manner.
4. If you select “count” and a “relative” time option, DOX type graphs also have a third download
option (indicated by blue arrow in graph above). The “Download CVS file of Graph Data” opens a
new tab which shows a list that can then be copied and pasted into Excel, where data can be
manipulated. The list shown in the new tab is organized as follows:
a. Relative time interval name (Period, Epoch, or Stage name abbreviation), the beginning
absolute date for that interval, the ending absolute date for that interval, and the
number of genera counted (as Diversity, Origination, or Extinction) in that interval.
Below is an example. *Note, a key for the interval name abbreviations can be found in the “Time”
glossary of the help menu.
Graphing Stratigraphic Range type graphs:
1. Once your selected genera are in the selected listings box on the graph page, you may begin
choosing options for your stratigraphic range type graph.
2. You may choose to label your graph with genus names (or not).
3. You must choose to either sort your genera by their FAD or LAD.
4. Once you have selected your options, click the “graph” button to the right of the options. This
will open a new tab with your graph. The examples below are genera from the Classes Tabulata
and Rugosa.
a. If you chose to label your graph, small blue squares will appear on each stratigraphic
range line in your graph. If you hover your mouse above a label the genus name appears
(Figure 4A). Click the label to see the data for this genus. *Note: If you do this, you must
then click the back button on your browser to return to the graph.
Figure 4A
b. This graph type also has the “Download/Print Graph” option, which will open the graph
in a new tab (Figure 4B- without labels). Then you can right-click and choose to save the
image, or print the graph using your browser’s print option.
Figure 4B
Graphing Period Graphs:
1. These graphs do not require any genera in the selected listings box.
2. Simply choose which Period you wish to graph and then select either to graph it at the phylum
or class level using the drop down menus (Figures 1A and 1B). Then click the corresponding
graph button.
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
3. If you select to graph a Period using the phylum option, the graph shows each of the phyla along
the x-axis, and the number of genera in that phylum for the selected Period along the y-axis.
4. If you select to graph a Period using the class option, the graph still shows each of the phyla
along the x-axis, however each bar is divided into several pieces which represent the classes
under that phylum. You may hover your mouse over any parts of the bar to see which class it
represents (Figure 4A), or you may click on any bar to produce a pie graph showing the
percentage each class represents for that phylum, during that time period (Figure 4B). *Note:
Pie graphs do not open a separate tab in your browser; to return to the original Period graph
you must click the back button on your browser.
Figure 4A
Figure 4B
5. Both of these graphs also have the “Download/Print Graph” option (Indicated with a red arrow
in above figures), which will open the graph in a new tab. Then you can right-click and choose to
save the image, or print the graph using your browser’s print option.
Graphing Sepkoski Curves:
1. Select the Sepkoski Curve under the Special Graphs category. This graph uses a preset list of
genera, and does not require any genera in the selected listings box. Note* The preset list details can
be found on the “Graphing Details” page through the main help page.
2. This graph type has the same options as the DOX type graphs (Figure 2). See “Graphing DOX
graphs” for more information.
Figure 2
3.
The results for these graphs show three colors for each of the three groups known as Sepkoski's
Evolutionary Faunas. These are the Cambrian (Cm), Paleozoic (Pz), and Modern (Md)
evolutionary fauna groups (Figure 3- selected diversity and relative time at the stage level).
Note* All of these graphs are stacked graphs, so each of the data sets is stacked on top of one another in
this graph. For instance, in the example below, to determine the number of genera in the “Modern
Fauna” group during stage Leonardian (Leon) (Indicated with the green arrow), you must determine the
number of genera at the top of the thick black line and subtract from this number the number of genera
represented by the bottom of the line (In this case: ~1250 - ~850= ~400 genera).
Figure 3
6. These graphs have the option to change the graph title as well as the “Download/Print Graph”
option, which will open the graph in a new tab (blue arrow). Then you can right-click and choose
to save the image, or print the graph using your browser’s print option.