Over 5 million bird specimens are housed in North American collections, documenting the composition, distribution, ecology, and systematics of the world's estimated 10,000-16,000 bird species. Millions of additional observational records are held in diverse data sets. ORNIS addresses the urgent call for increased access to these data in an open and collaborative manner, and involves development of a suite of online software tools for data analysis and error-checking. This project, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands on existing infrastructure developed for distributed mammal (MaNIS), amphibian and reptile (HerpNet), and fish (FishNet) databases. ... [Information of the supplier]
Our objective is to provide free access for all scientists to the old zoological literature, particularly to those important publications where name-bearing zoological taxa were originally described. The literature is digitized in image format by the SUB Göttingen (our university library). In a first 2-year period (2003-2005) financed by the DFG we have digitized nearly all taxonomically relevant zoological literature from the beginnings until 1770 (about 400 works). Only some 5 % of the literature is not present in Göttingen and we are currently trying to obtain some works from other libraries. In a second 2-year-period we will try to cover the period from 1770 to 1800. Monographic works and journal articles shall both be digitized. The AnimalBase database is primarily established to link the old literature with the names of the animals described therein. We have continuously gone through the old works, from 1757 onwards, and entered all correctly described new animal names (genera and species taxa) by hand according to a standard established by our working group. (...) AnimalBase is a service provided by the University of Göttingen, Germany. Our work is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG. This page is under construction and we apologize for things not yet working perfectly. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
This January 2004 Catalog is more recent than the hardbound printed edition (April, 1998)—a 3-volume set of 2,905 pp. and a CD-ROM (see ordering information). Many errors have been corrected and new additions made in the on-line version. Treated in the "Catalog of Fishes" are about 56,000 described species and subspecies (= species) of fishes, about 10,600 genera and subgenera (= genera) of fishes, and about 21,700 references. Approximately 4,000 of the species names are not available for use because of technical reasons. About 26,000 species are valid ones, and about 25,000 are synonyms. About 200-300 new species are being described each year. Included in the on-line version are all species, genera, and references, along with the classification, introduction, and list of museum abreviations. Other parts of the printed version are not included, such as the interpretation of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Appendix A), and the species and genera in a classification (which can be simulated with appropriate searches), and Appendix B. This is the first treatment of all described fishes since Linnaeus in 1758. Nearly all original descriptions have been located and examined by one or more of us. Some names not in current use have been found. Many mistakes in current literature are noted. We have also tried to determine the location of type specimens—entering information from available type catalogs, and the first author made visits to many major museums in search of information on types. ... [Information of the supplier]
ION is supposed to contain all the animal, plant, and virus names data found within the Thomson BIOSIS literature databases - Zoological RecordTM, BIOSIS Previews® and Biological Abstracts®. Bacteria names will be added soon. [Information of the supplier, modified]
Welcome to ITIS, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System! Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. We are a partnership of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican agencies (ITIS-North America); other organizations; and taxonomic specialists. ITIS is also a partner of Species 2000 and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). ... [Information of the supplier]
Species 2000 is a "federation" of database organisations working closely with users, taxonomists and sponsoring agencies. The goal of the Species 2000 project is to create a validated checklist of all the world's species (plants, animals, fungi and microbes). This is being achieved by bringing together an array of global species databases covering each of the major groups of organisms. Each database covers all known species in the group, using a consistent taxonomic system. The participating databases are widely distributed throughout the world and currently number 40. The existing global species databases presently account for some 40% of the total known species, so substantial investment in new databases will be needed for full coverage of all taxa to be achieved. ... [Information of the supplier]
This digital archive of unique material relating to the society's priceless collections of specimens, manuscripts and letters will enable full global access for investigation allowing researchers to rapidly check details of the specimens on-line, including morphological details and written data. The information is of critical importance to correct naming and identification of specimens. The type specimens represent the original concept of new species, exemplified by the specimens and illustrations used when assigning binomial scientific names, the foundation stones of taxonomy. The Herbarium archive contains all 14,300 Linnaean plant specimens. This first phase of the Insects archive contains the Linnaean and Smithian butterflies and moths only. The remaining insects from the collection will be made available during 2009. The Fish archive contains all the 158 Linnaean fish specimens. ... [Information of the supplier]
"Why do evolutionary biologists care who's related to whom, and how do scientists find out how different animals are related?" Scientists care because phylogeny is the fundamental product of evolution. Therefore, a phylogenetic hypothesis is essential if you want to understand biological phenomena, most of which have an evolutionary explanation. Since many scientists would like to know how animal diversity and animal body plans came to be, presently there is a great deal of work on resolving the evolutionary relationships among the major groups of animals. Much of this research has relied upon morphological characters, especially those expressed in early development (e.g. embryological characters). More recently, a significant advance in our understanding of animal phylogeny has been brought about by the study of molecules (in particular genes and their protein products) contained within animal cells. The phylogeny presented here is a relatively conservative guess based upon various published studies of 18S ribosomal RNA sequence data. As you can see, there are quite a few unresolved branches, and therefore a great deal of work to be done in this area. ... [Information of the supplier]
This site merges the book A Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North America by Diane Schmidt, Biology Librarian at the University of Illinois, and its companion Web site International Field Guides. After the publisher returned copyright to the book, the author decided to combine the two products and create a searchable database of field guides for plants, animals, and other objects in North America and around the world. Except where noted, all guides listed here were personally examined by the author. As used in this site, a field guide is a small, lightweight book used to identify plants, animals, or other objects. It is designed to be used outdoors and usually contains many illustrations, whether drawings or photographs, and limited text. Generally speaking, field guides are used by amateurs, hence the emphasis on visual identification. There are a number of different technical manuals, atlases, floras and faunas, handbooks, and keys for the use of professionals which are not listed here. ... [Information of the supplier]
Although these literature searches were originally conceived as providing working documents for our own researches, it soon became apparent that this comprehensive catalogue of literature and illustrations should be made generally available rapidly and freely as a working tool for all those interested in working on Trichoptera material from Africa, especially for colleagues in far-distant institutes and without access to large libraries. Each page will record the name of the species, its distribution, the best illustrations of its diagnostic characters available in the literature, usually of genital structures, and the appropriate original literature. This bibliographic reference work containing over 1200 species and subspecies in 26 families and 109 genera makes no claim to be complete. The clarification of problematic systematic questions or synonyms was also not one of its aims. ... [Information of the supplier]
