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Many people are aware of very large-scale scientific research projects, such as the Deep Sea Drilling Project in oceanography/geology or the Human Genome Project in molecular biology. These projects involve groups of tens to hundreds of scientific specialists collaborating on research projects in order to answer questions that individual researchers could not address alone. The Dominican Republic Project was one of the first multidisciplinary and international research projects in the field of paleobiology. By the 1960's, scientists in many fields were beginning to recognize that the amount of information, number of research methods, and range of specialties had increased to such a degree that it was difficult for a single scientist to "do" and know "everything" applicable to a research project. Scientists recognized that by forming groups of scientists interested in the same research questions, but specializing in different subfields, they could test scientific hypotheses more accurately, efficiently, and economically.

The founders of the DRP embraced this collaborative approach. In order to study patterns of biodiversity and evolutionary change, many specialists are necessary. These specialists include: (1) Field geologists to identify the rocks, determine their structure, and map their occurrence; (2) Geochronologists to determine the age of the rocks; (3) Stratigraphers to document the sedimentary layers of the rocks and determine the equivalency of the different exposures of the layers; (4) Paleobiologists and systematists to collect, study, and identify the fossils that occur with the rocks; and (5) Evolutionary biologists and paleobiologists to study the evolutionary patterns that occur through time. It is difficult for any researcher to have the breadth of knowledge to do all of these things as well as individual specialists can. For this reason, many scientific projects, including the Dominican Republic Project, involve large groups of researchers.

Phase I: Field studies, mapping of the rock layers, and careful collection of fossil material.

In the mid 1970's, a group of European scientists (Peter Jung, Switzerland; John Saunders, England; and Bernard Biju-Duval, France, seen above) began planning a large-scale research project to resample the invertebrates of the Cibao Valley, re-map the region, and measure the stratigraphic layers with greater precision. The European team planned to precisely determine the ages of the layers, employ more appropriate sampling methods, and record locality information in greater detail than previous workers had done. They were not aware that Harold and Emily Vokes of Tulane University had also begun collecting in the region and revising age estimages of the sedimentary rocks. Each year from 1977-1980 John Saunders, Peter Jung, and Bernard Biju-Duval were joined in the field by a several other scientists and Dominicans from nearby communities (see Saunders, Jung, and Biju-Duval, 1986, p. 9). A total of about 50 people were involved in the collection of fossil samples. Many of the river exposures that were studied are very remote and can only be reached on foot or on horseback. (Even today, mules are used to carry samples out of the river valleys). The DRP field teams collected 300 samples for macrofossil study and 500 samples for microfossil study. Overall, these samples contained millions of invertebrate specimens from several tons of material. These samples were sent to the Naturhistorishes Museum Basel (NMB) Switzerland for processing, sorting, identification, and curation. The results of many years of field research were published in the "Red Book" (Saunders, Jung, and Biju-Duval, 1986, see below). It contains a series of detailed maps of collecting localities throughout the Cibao Valley.

Phase II: Detailed systematic and biostratigraphic study of invertebrate groups.

Because the DRP field team collected considerably more material than Carlotta Maury or any of the other scientists who had worked in the Cibao Valley previously, many new species of invertebrate animals (especially corals and mollusks) were discovered. In addition, more data were now available to make sure that the scientific names and identifications of the specimens collected and studied by other scientists (e.g, Sowerby, Gabb, Pflug, etc) were accurate. The extensive sampling by the DRP team also produced specimens from rock layers and locations that had previously never been found. For these reasons, the distributions of species in space and time needed to be updated.

The Swiss team realized that it was necessary to send the sorted specimens to biologists or paleobiologists who were experts in the invertebrate groups that were sampled. When the museum scientists and staff finished processing the field samples, the specimens were sent to experts from around the world ( Click here to see the list of systematists ). Unfortunately, there are not enough trained systematists with knowledge about invertebrate biodiversity, so many groups of invertebrates remain unstudied and unknown to science. Each systematist in the DRP spent several years working on the samples, comparing them to other living and fossil species, and visiting museums around the world to make sure that the scientific names assigned to the specimens were correct. Once the experts identified the specimens to the species level, they could then document the exact locations of the species geographically and through geological time (temporally) in the Cibao Valley . This information was then combined with data from other studies to determine where else the species lived in the past and if these species were still living in the Caribbean Sea . Each systematist published the results of their completed research as a monograph in the scientific journal Bulletins of American Paleontology . Bulletins of American Paleontology was established in 1895 and is the oldest paleontological journal published in the western hemisphere

Currently, 23 systematic monographs have been published as a result of DRP research (for example, van den Bold, 1988; Jung 1986, 1994, 1996; Jung and Petit, 1990; Budd, 1987; Budd et al., 1994; E. Vokes, 1989; H. Vokes 1989; Anderson, 1996; Nehm, 2001; Costa, Nehm, and Hickman, 2001). After publication the fossil material used in the studies is returned to the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel (NMB) in Switzerland for safe keeping and further study, but information about these specimens can be found on the on-line database NMITA. To date, more than 200 Dominican invertebrate species have been studied in great detail (taxonomically, stratigraphically, and ecologically) by systematists who are experts on their respective biological groups. Few other paleobiological research systems offer species-level data of this quality. These data form the raw material for many other scientific research questions, as discussed below.

Phase III: Synthesis and re-evaluation.

More than 20 years after the first DRP field teams set foot in the Cibao Valley, scientists continue to use the original samples to address important evolutionary and ecological questions (e.g., Cheetham, 1987, 2001; Nehm, 2001a,b,c; Anderson and Roopnarine, 2001; Budd et al., 1987; Budd, 2001; Tang et al., 2001; Costa et al., 2001) . For example, Dominican invertebrate groups have been and continue to be used in several detailed quantitative analyses of evolutionary change (e.g., Cheetham, 1986, 1987; Nehm and Geary, 1994; Anderson, 1994; Nehm, 2001a,b,c; Cheetham and Jackson, 1995; Marshall , 1995) . Some of these studies (e.g., Cheetham, 1986, 1987) figure prominently in evolutionary biology textbooks as benchmark cases of punctuated equilibrium (for example, see Futuyma, 1998; Ridley, 1996; Skelton, 1995). Additionally, speciation research in the Dominican Republic is important because the DRP is one of only a few research systems in the world where several unambiguous cases of morphological stasis and punctuated speciation in multiple lineages of invertebrate animals are known to occur (Cheetham, 1986, 1987; Nehm and Geary, 1994). The first attempt at synthesizing DRP research was a symposium organized by Ross Nehm and Nancy Budd and held at the 2001 North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) in Berkeley California . The symposium (S11-Species-level and Community-level Stability: Case Studies from the Dominican Republic Neogene) brought together researchers from around the world, reviewed what we had learned in the past 20 years, and included examples of how the DRP research system could be used to address new questions in ecology and evolution (e.g, evolution and development, evolutionary stasis, and coordinated stasis). Current work is critically re-examining some of the sampling methods, assumptions, and results of the work that has been done over the past 20 years. Several researchers have discovered new field observations and collected additional fossil material for analysis. All of this work is helping scientists better understand the causes of extinction, evolution, and overall biodiversity patterns in the Caribbean region. Undergraduates and graduate students are encouraged to contact DRP researchers if they are interested in participating in the DRP and addressing evolutionary and ecological questions relating to Caribbean biodiversity.