🦴 Paleobiology Database Fossils Scraper

🚀 Pull fossil occurrence records in seconds. Search any taxon and get back where it was found, how old it is, and which collection it came from, straight from the Paleobiology Database (PBDB).

The Paleobiology Database is a public, scientist-curated archive of the fossil record, holding millions of occurrence records contributed by paleontologists worldwide. This Actor queries the PBDB data service by taxonomic name and returns clean, structured fossil occurrence records ready for analysis.

Coverage: Every taxonomic level is searchable, from a single genus like Tyrannosaurus up to an entire class like Mammalia. Each occurrence carries its taxon identification, geologic age in millions of years, country and coordinates, and the rock formation it was recovered from. Filter by geologic interval (period, epoch, or age) and by country to focus a query.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Paleontologists and geologists	Build occurrence datasets for a taxon or clade
Researchers and students	Map fossil distribution across time and place
Data scientists and educators	Feed biodiversity and macroevolution models
Museum and collection staff	Cross-reference specimens with literature

📋 What the Paleobiology Database Fossils Scraper does

It calls the PBDB occurrences endpoint for a taxon name you provide and walks the returned records, returning one row per fossil occurrence. For every occurrence it captures the taxon name and rank, the occurrence and collection identifiers, the geologic interval and early/late age in millions of years (Ma), the reference identifier, the country, latitude and longitude, and the rock formation. Optional interval and country filters narrow the search.

📊 Data fields

Each record includes: class, collectionId, country, earlyAgeMa, earlyInterval, family, formation, lat, lateAgeMa, lateInterval, lng, occurrenceId, phylum, referenceId, results, scrapedAt, taxonName, taxonRank. These field names come straight from the actor's dataset schema, so what you see here is what lands in your dataset.

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free Apify account using this sign-up link.
2. Open the Paleobiology Database Fossils Scraper.
3. Enter a taxon name in baseName, for example Triceratops, Canis, or Trilobita.
4. Optionally set an interval and a country, then choose maxItems.
5. Run the Actor and collect your fossil occurrence dataset.

🔗 Recommended Actors

• Macrostrat Geology Units Scraper for stratigraphic units by location.
• GAIA Star Catalog Scraper for astronomical catalog data.
• JPL Small-Body Database Scraper for asteroid and comet records.

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with the Paleobiology Database. Only publicly available data is collected.

🆘 Need Help?

If you hit a bug, have questions about setup, or need a scraper we haven't built yet, open our contact form or write to parseforge@protonmail.com. We also take on paid custom data projects.

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