https://hdl.handle.net/10481/2696 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:30:49 GMT 2026-04-17T19:30:49Z https://hdl.handle.net/10481/84921 The NOW Database of Fossil Mammals Žliobaitė, Indrė; Minwer-Barakat Requena, Raef NOW (New and Old Worlds) is a global database of fossil mammal occurrences, currently containing around 68,000 locality-species entries. The database spans the last 66 million years, with its primary focus on the last 23 million years. Whereas the database contains records from all continents, the main focus and coverage of the database historically has been on Eurasia. The database includes primarily, but not exclusively, terrestrial mammals. It covers a large part of the currently known mammalian fossil record, focusing on classical and actively researched fossil localities. The database is managed in collaboration with an international advisory board of experts. Rather than a static archive, it emphasizes the continuous integration of new knowledge of the community, data curation, and consistency of scientific interpretations. The database records species occurrences at localities worldwide, as well as ecological characteristics of fossil species, geological contexts of localities and more. The NOW database is primarily used for two purposes: (1) queries about occurrences of particular taxa, their characteristics and properties of localities in the spirit of an encyclopedia; and (2) large scale research and quantitative analyses of evolutionary processes, patterns, reconstructing past environments, as well as interpreting evolutionary contexts. The data are fully open, no logging in or community membership is necessary for using the data for any purpose. This chapter was completed and accepted after revision in August 2021. NOW does not have dedicated institutional funding. The database and data development are funded from regular research projects of the NOW Community members. Current and recent (last 5 years) funding sources include: The Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation and The Academy of Finland. ICP researchers acknowledge funding from the “Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Programme)”, R+D+I projects “PID2020-117289GB-I00” and “PID2020-116908GB-I00” (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/) and consolidated research group from the Generalitat de Catalunya “2022 SGR 00620”. This is Bernor’s NSF FuTRES publication 35. L. K. Säilä acknowledges Academy of Finland Postdoctoral grant (275551). We thank three reviewers for helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript text. Contributions from the Valio Armas Korvenkontio Unit of Dental Anatomy in Relation to Evolutionary Theory are acknowledged. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/84921