Paper Title: An image dataset of fusulinid foraminifera generated with the aid of deep learning

Author: Hanhui Huang, Yukun Shi, Qin Chen, Huiqing Xu, Sicong Song, Yujie Shi, Furao Shen, Junxuan Fan

https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.215

Paper Online 07 August 2023

Introduction: Fusulinid foraminifera, these diminutive denizens of the Late Palaeozoic, have emerged as the unsung heroes of our geological narrative. They are the microscopic timekeepers, the silent witnesses to Earth's ever-evolving story. They hold the key to unraveling stratigraphy, deciphering paleogeographic puzzles, shedding light on paleoenvironments, and illuminating the course of marine life's evolution. But to unlock their secrets, we must first unveil their identities with precision—a challenge hitherto limited by the absence of digitized image datasets.

The Visionary Creation: Today, we unveil a pioneering achievement—a treasure trove of 2,400 meticulously curated images, each a portal to the world of fusulinid foraminifera. Spanning all six fusulinid families and encompassing a remarkable 16 genera, these images have been culled from both scholarly literature and our own unpublished samples. The journey to assemble this dataset was not solely one of human endeavor; it was a symphony of human intelligence and the brilliance of BlendMask—a deep learning model, in a harmonious dance of discovery.

The Dawn of Efficiency: This dataset marks the dawn of a new era in the accumulation of fossil images. Through automated procedures, we have transcended the constraints of manual curation, empowering taxonomists and researchers to navigate the labyrinthine world of fusulinids with unprecedented ease. With each species labeled and cataloged, it serves as an invaluable resource for future explorations into morphological intricacies and systematic inquiries.

As we offer this dataset to the scientific community, we invite you to embark on a journey through the ancient depths—a journey enriched by the fusion of geological insight and cutting-edge technology. Fusulinid foraminifera have been our companions across the eons, and now, with this dataset, their stories can be told with newfound clarity and precision.

Dataset Identifier:

https://doi.org/10.12297/dpr.dde.202211.5

Creator: Hanhui Huang and Yukun Shi

Title: Fusulinid images 2400 –NJU

Publisher: DDE Repository

Publication year: 2022

Resource type: Image dataset

Version: 1.0