Proposal talk:Fossil

Concerning "Applies to: node, way, area, relation", How would you tag this on a relation or a way? Would node or area not be enough, you think? --S8evq (talk) 12:47, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Probably node alone is enough, I just thought i'd come prepared for the unforeseen. I'll change it. Joost schouppe (talk) 13:03, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

There are some extremely large fossils that could be plausibly micromapped as areas. For example amonites with diameter measured in meters exhibited in one of museums that I visited Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 13:33, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Extruded?

I'm not sure what you meant, but I doubt it was that the fossil was shaped by squeezing it through a nozzle (like toothpaste). I think you meant "extracted" but I'm not sure. --Brian de Ford (talk) 12:53, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

I'm not a native speaker, and sometimes I'm overconfident :)

What I mean is that the fossil isn't part of rock anymore, but has indeed been "extracted" from it and is now it's own separate object - loose, and not part of a bigger rock that.

Joost schouppe (talk) 13:01, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Note that location conflicts with some existing values

note that location=building conflicts with location=indoor / location=outdoor / location=rooftop (fossil may be build into wall from outside and from inside)

The same for location=artefact. For example fossil exhibited in museum would be both location=indoor and location=artefact.

Maybe use some new tag for that, extraction_state or something else? (extraction_state is terrible, but I was not looking for a better value for long)

Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 13:31, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Good point, thanks! I'll try and think of a solution Joost schouppe (talk) 17:41, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

After further thinking, I don't think there really is an issue. I have copied this approach from the emergency=defibrillator page, where for example location=wall can be combined with outdoor=no to clarify which side of the wall it is on. So you can say location=indoor without further detail, and if you want to say it's an artefact you simply change to location=artefact + indoor=yes.

Perhaps not the most elegant solution though. Joost schouppe (talk) 11:21, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

I still think that such inconsistency how location=* tag would be used is unfortunate Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 11:41, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

Suggestions for this proposal

Giving this some thought, I would like to keep going with this proposal. Here are some suggestions I would add:

• location=outcrop would be more appropriate than fixed_rock, as this is the terminology usually used in geology/paleontology (many fossils are found in loose sediment, but these are not mappable individually)
• A key=value tag allowing to specify further outcrop=cliff or outcrop=river_bank would be useful to describe the actual outdoor setting
• the wiki page should recommend fossils at fixed outdoor locations be placed within a geological=paleontological_site way, and suggest that the larger outcrop could be mapped with geological=outcrop
• A tag constraining the geochronologic unit it has been dated to would be useful (i.e., Cambrian, Mississippian, etc.) - I am not sure if OSM has a convention for this yet
• Type of fossil preserved would also be valuable. Some way to specify if it is a cast or mold, if it is permineralized, if it represents compression or impression (for plants), or if it is a trace fossil (carries different implications for taxonomy)
• Parent fossil site or rock unit name (like "Burgess Shale")
• Parent lithology if applicable/unseparated from the rock

As far as fossils which are exposed but challenging to map individually - a collection of tiny ones that are in fixed locations but too small and numerous to map individually - a tag like fossiliferous=yes would make sense. That could have a broad number of applications. If a structure is built from fossil-bearing stone, it could be tagged material:fossiliferous=yes. If a beach or stream is known to be fossil bearing, it could also be tagged as fossiliferous=yes. The tag could also be combined with geologic=outcrop, natural=bare_rock, natural=stone, and many others. --Bgo eiu (talk) 21:17, 20 March 2022 (UTC)