Systematics, Taxonomy and biodiversity
Associations and Centers for Study
- Natural Science Collections Alliance
The Natural Science Collections Alliance is a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit association that supports natural science collections and their research activities. International community of museums, botanical gardens, herbariums, universities and other institutions that house natural science collections and utilize them in research, exhibitions, academic and informal science education, and outreach activities. - The Systematics Association
The Systematics Association supports scholarship in the fields of systematics through international conferences, training courses, and grants to support research. - Classification Society (North America)
In 2008, the Classification Society of North American (CSNA) reverted to its former name. The Classification Society is a nonprofit interdisciplinary and international organization whose purposes are to promote the scientific study of classification and clustering (including systematic methods of creating classifications from data), and to disseminate scientific and educational information related to its fields of interests. - Society of Systematic Biologists
The objective of the Society of Systematic Biologists is the advancement of the science of systematic biology's theory, principles, methodology, and practice in the study of both living and fossil organisma with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization. - American Society of Plant Taxonomists
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists promotes research and teaching of taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of vascular and nonvascular plants. The Society publishes several publications and holds scientific meetings. - The Linnaean Society
The Linnaean Societies are the world's oldest organizations devoted to natural history and taxonomy. - Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification
Foundation dedicated to improve on a global scale the quantity, quality, and accessibility of taxonomic information, based on an initiative of the United Nations' Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Classification and Identification Resources
- The Tree of Life
Collection of webpages covering the diversity of life, particularly the relationships between organisms. - Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
Valid names of plants and animals mainly in North America - searchable by common or scientific name. - Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World
Mammals Species of the World is a database of mammalian taxonomy useful for verifying scientific names and conducting taxonomic research. Maintained by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Mammals. - The PLANTS Database
The PLANTS Database maintained by the National Resources Conservation Service, provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links and references. - Species 2000
Species 2000 has the objective of enumerating all known species of plants, animals, fungi and microbes on Earth as the baseline dataset for studies of global biodiversity. Provides a simple access point enabling users to link from here to other data systems for all groups of organisms, using direct species-links. - International Plant Name Index
The International Plant Name Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes. Its goal is to eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic bibliographic information about plant names. The data are freely available and are gradually being standardized and checkedl IPNI will be a dynamic resource, depending on direct contributions by all members of the botannical community. - World Register of Marine Species
The aim of a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is to provide an authoritative and conmprehsive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. While highest priority goes to valid names, other names in use are included so that this register can serve as a guide to interpret taxonomic literature. - TreeBASE
TreeBASE is a repository of phylogenetic information, specifically user-submitted phylogenetic tress and the date used to generate them. TreeBASE accepts all types of phylogenetic data (e.g. trees of species, trees of populations, tree of genes) representing all biotic taxa. - International Organization for Plant Information
A Taxonomic Information Model for Botanical Databases.
Other Resources
- Biodiversity and Conservation
A hypertext book by Peter J. Bryant. It deals with the "origin, nature, and value of biological diversity, the threats to its continued existence, and the approaches to preserving what is "left". The hypertext book includes chapters on the history of life, extinction, over-exploitation, global patterns endangered species protection, habitat pollution, and human population growth. - Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
BHL is a consortium of 12 natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global "biodiversity commons". BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.) - The Global Biodiversity Information Facility(GBIF)
GBIF facilitates free and open access to biodiversity data to the scientific community and general public through its indexing of information from a number of global networks of databases that contain primary biodiversity data including information on museum specimens, field observations of plants and animals in nature and experiments. - University of California Museum of Paleontology
The UCMP website features exhibits on fossil records, ecology, morphology, and systematics. Also included are links to research conducted at the museum, educational materials, and online exhibits. - Phylogeny of Life
These exhibits from the UCMP explore the ancestor/descendant relationships which connect all organisms, past and present. Links on this website include a glossory, timeline, and tree of life. - List of Databases for the Study of Phylogenetics and Taxonomy
- Taxacom ListServ
Twitter name:@taxacom - University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web (ADW)
This website contains an online database of animal natural history, classification, conservation and biodiversity. Includes resources for science teachers at the elementary, secondary and college level.