Colombian Fossils Coauthorship Network

This research determines the Colombian fossils co-authorship network from 1845 until December 2019 by developing an EndNote reference database of articles searched in several databases, open access repositories, and specialized journals. Data allowed to compute the collaboration indexes and the co-authority network changes from 1845 to 1959, 1845 to 1989, and 1845 to 2019 intervals. Moreover, topographic measurements (i.e., centrality, neighboring, and intermediation) for each author of the network were estimated. The search found 628 papers issued by 621 authors. Furthermore, the collaboration between authors represents 50% of the entire network's documents. Besides, since 1980s the network reached its higher collaboration indexes. Specifically, from 1845 to 1959, the network has a lower size (i.e., four authors). Then, from 1845 to 1989, it has 15 authors, and finally, from 1845 to 2019, it reached 22 authors. The authors with higher values in centrality, neighboring, and intermediation are Hedberg, H.D. (1845 to 1959), Villarroel, C. (1845 to 1989), and Jarannillo, C. (1845 to 2019). Overall, the evolution of the Colombian fossils co-authorship network tends to increase through time. Nonetheless, this analysis showed that the number of paleontologists studying the Colombian fossil record is still deficient. Something that calls attention because these fossils are the key to understanding 1how Neotropical biomes will be facing both global warming and the sixth mass extinction.