Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates

Thalattosuchian skull, Paläontologisches Museum München, photo credit: C. A. Brochu

The BFV Online provides interactive access to the SVP's Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates series. Using the BFV Online, users can specify a search criterion, and receive a formatted list of matching literature references. To begin your search, please click on the "Submit Query" button below (the BFV query web page will open in a new browser window or tab). Queries are formed like taxon = 'Tyrannosaurus'.

Detailed instructions are available for writing queries, including complex Boolean statements and the use of pattern-matching.

Note: Currently, the database covers the years 1509-1968 and 1981-1993, and has approximately 131,190 references.

History

The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates (BFV) aimed to index the world literature of vertebrate paleontology. Although no compilation can ever be complete, the BFV attempted to include every published scientific work that mentioned vertebrate fossils. In addition, it included works that dealt with closely related subjects such as evolutionary theory, geology, and the history of science, where relevant. Articles from newspapers and popular magazines were not included; nevertheless, the total number of references to books and published articles is in the neighborhood of 200,000. The bibliographies indexed literature by taxonomy, geologic age, geography and subject areas, although the indexing changed over the years. The contents of those bibliographies have been converted to a database that can be searched using subject and taxonomic indexes, covering the literature from 1509-1993.

The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates was compiled and published as a series of volumes, beginning with the 1928-1933 Camp, et al., volume published in 1940 (see below). However, this volume continued the work begun by O. P. Hay and his colleagues, who had published two previous retrospective volumes covering the literature of North American vertebrate paleontology, in 1902 and 1929. The Camp volumes were published by the Geological Society of America. In 1962, A. S. Romer, et al. (see below) compiled a massive bibliography to complement the Hay volumes, covering the non-North American published literature up to the point when the BFV series proper was begun.

In the early 1970s, the BFV indexing was done under a cooperative agreement by the SVP, the American Geological Institute (AGI) and the University of California Museum of Paleontology, under the supervision of J. T. Gregory, and the references incorporated into AGI's GeoRef.

Publication of the series resumed in 1983, with a compilation of the AGI references in the 1973-1977, 1978 and 1979 volumes. The 1980-1993 volumes were supported by the SVP and the University of California Museum of Paleontology. The increasing indexing of vertebrate paleontological literature in computerized indexes, and the increasing costs of indexing caused the SVP to cease publication of the BFV in 1996. A demonstration project of the BFV Online, created by John Damuth in 1994, proved successful, and the SVP supported its expansion. A grant from the Dinosaur Society permitted keystroking of the references from the older printed volumes, which have been added to the database.

All of these volumes are generally considered part of the Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates series, which thus includes an unbroken record of the entire published literature on vertebrate fossils, starting at the year 1509. All of these volumes are included in the BFV Online database.

Thus, for approximately one hundred years the vertebrate paleontology research community has compiled and indexed its own widely dispersed, specialized literature. The editorial staff has always comprised people with professional training and experience in paleontology. The result is that the subject and (especially) taxonomic indexing of the BFV entries is unusually accurate and detailed. We are indebted to the hard work and dedication of the BFV editors over the decades for this tremendous resource, long before the availability of online research databases, and are proud to be able to provide access to it.

Hay, O. P. 1902. Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 179, 868 pp.
Hay, O. P. 1929. Second Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication no. 390, vol. 1, 916 pp.
Romer, A. S., N. E. Wright, T. Edinger and R. van Frank (eds). 1962. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Exclusive of North America. The Geological Scoiety of America, GSA Memoir 87.
Camp, C. L. and V. L. Vanderhoof (eds). 1940. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1928-1933. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 27.
Camp, C. L., D. N. Taylor and S. P. Welles (eds). 1942. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1934-1938. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 42.
Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1949. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1939-1943. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 37.
Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1953. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1944-1948. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 57.
Camp, C. L. and H. J. Allison (eds). 1961. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1949-1953. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 84.
Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison and R. H. Nichols (eds). 1964. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1954-1958. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 92.
Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison, R. H. Nichols and H. McGinnis (eds). 1968. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1959-1963. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 117.
Camp, C. L., R. H. Nichols, B. Brajnikov, E. Fulton and J. A. Bacskai (eds). 1972. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1964-1968. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 134.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, B. Brajnikov and K. Munthe (eds). 1973. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1969-1972. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 141.
Bacskai, J. A., L. J. Bryant, J. T. Gregory, G. V. Shkurkin and M. C. Winans (eds). 1983. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1973-1977. The American Geological Institute.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, and G. V. Shkurkin (eds). 1981. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1978. The American Geological Institute.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin and L. J. Bryant (eds). 1981. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1979. The American Geological Institute.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, L. J. Bryant and M. C. Winans (eds). 1983. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1980. The American Geological Institute.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, and M. C. Winans (eds). 1984. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1981. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, and M. C. Winans (eds). 1985. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1982. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, and M. C. Winans (eds). 1986. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1983. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, L. J. Bryant and M. C. Winans (eds). 1987. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1984. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1988. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1985. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1989. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1986. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1990. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1987. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1991. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1988. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1992. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1989. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin, M. C. Winans and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1993. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1990. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1994. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1991. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1995. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1992. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, G. V. Shkurkin and B. H. Rauscher (eds). 1996. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1993. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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