TEMNOS (Temnospondyl Evolution, Morphology, Nomenclature, and Other Stuff), an openly available database of curated temnospondyl datasets

This preprint introduces and describes a living database, TEMNOS (Temnospondyl Evolution, Morphology, Nomenclature, and Other Stuff) comprised of individual curated datasets, that broadly encompasses data pertaining to temnospondyls, a diverse, globally distributed, and temporally long-ranging clade of non-amniotes ('amphibians' in a broad sense) that has been widely linked to the origin of modern amphibians. The database has no "designed" or "prescribed" usage (i.e. is not linked to a singular manuscript that is actively in development or review) but builds upon smaller-scale datasets that I have collated over the years as part of other projects. It is being developed, formalized, and published now in recognition of the importance and frequent inclusion of temnospondyls in broad macroevolutionary studies across broad temporal, geographic, and taxonomic scales and in recognition of the current shortcomings of other synoptic works or large-scale databases that are presently relied upon for scientific analyses. The database is intended to be continuously refined and grown in various ways in order to overcome the common challenge of a static nature of academic publications and to provide a high-quality set of reference materials for a wide array of information around temnospondyl paleobiology and study. TEMNOS is intended to be a collaborative and responsive resource and is intended to be used by more audiences than just academics and for more purposes than just scholarly research. This preprint serves as the descriptor of the conceptual basis and motivation for TEMNOS and as a means of crediting primary data generators through an indexable output. It will be modified periodically to account for major developments of the database and to keep the cited literature current, as well as to acknowledge any new contributors/authors.