Biology Links for Zoology 250


Animal diversity sites

Particularly useful sites:

  • Tree of Life (WWW explorable phylogeny of all living things; easy to navigate; limited information for some taxa)

  • Shape of Life (a stunning 8-part documentary series on the development and evolution of life, funded by the US National Science Foundation & several private foundations; a number of the spectacular video clips shown in class come from this series; thanks to Evan Luchkow for assembling this playlist, which includes complete episodes that are playable in HD).

  • Discover Life (a brave attempt to assemble information on all protist, animal and plant species at one site; 1,148,464 species pages as of Jan. 1, 2012; includes: geographic range maps (use with caution, these are not always verified), phylogenetic trees (variable coverage), on-line species ID guides using picture-based character specifications but variable quality & coverage)

  • Antarctic Underwater Field Guide (a remarkable collection of great photos, condensed summaries of biology -- with references -- for a wide range of marine protists, invertebrates, and vertebrates; a very valuable resource)

  • Animal Diversity Web (Extensive site by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology; includes classification of some taxa down to genera)

  • University of California Museum of Paleontology Taxon Lift (another extensive site by the University of California Museum, Berkeley; includes discussion of phylogeny and evolution)

  • BioDiversity Explorer (useful information on insects, spiders & scorpions, fragmentary information on marine groups; Museums of Cape Town, South Africa)

  • Palaeos (an excellent companion to the Tree of Life with more extensive information on fossil groups)

  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System ("authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, and microbes of North America and the world"; useful for assessing current classification of taxa)

  • Index of Organism Names (extensive database of Latin names derived from the scientific literature; no quality control on synonyms though)

  • Global Biodiversity Information Facility (extensive database of taxon names, including classification and geographic range information)

  • Sea Slug Forum (everything you would like to know about sea lugs)

Great photo/video sites:

Invertebrate Zoology Courses/
Textbooks with WWW content

General

  • Biodidac (digital resources for teaching invertebrate biology; many images, diagrams, etc.)

  • Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (for more Marine Biology & Invertebrates courses available through the University of Alberta)


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(revised Jan. 1, 2012)