PaleoPlot: A tool for the analysis, integration and manipulation of time-series paleorecords

In order to monitor and make predictions, palaeoceanographers need to manipulate, integrate and analyse paleo time-series that are obtained from a number of independent techniques and instruments which, moreover, are usually produced by different researches and/or laboratories. The result is a collection of datasets with unequal age precision. This situation worsens since, at present, there is not an assembly of integrated tools that permits the palaeontologists to perform a study without having to use applications of different natures (spreadsheets, image editors, time-series analysers, etc.) which are of general purpose and, usually, expensive and platform-dependent. Hence, the goal of this project was to develop a platform-independent full featured tool that could simplify the palaeocenographers work, being used during the whole process: from the beginning, merging and correlating different datasets, continuing with interactive analyses, to the end, plotting the results. PaleoPlot is a general tool which could be used for any kind of time series, although it is optimised for the use in the stratigraphy area. Finally, it must be said that PaleoPlot is currently been used as an educational tool on palaeontology courses at the University of Salamanca.