Evolution: Organism Report
Reference and Circulating books:
Browse in the REF 591 – 599 section for sources including, but not limited to:
Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom
Encyclopedia of Aquatic Life
Living Insects of the World
Living Fishes of the World
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology
Encyclopedia of Mammals
Animal Science
The Wildlife Atlas
Field guides (for spiders, sea shore creatures, etc.)
You may find the medical resources in REF 616 helpful, especially The Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases or A Field Guide to Germs
Try your organism in the library catalog as a keyword, or browse the shelves for information:
• Mollusks
• Marine and seashore invertebrates
• Mollusks
• Arthropods
• Chordates
• Birds
• Mammals
The following reviews are from The Librarian's Index to the Internet ( http://lii.org ), a directory of reliable, reviewed web sites.
World Biodiversity Database
"A continuously growing taxonomic database and information system that aims at documenting all presently known species (about 1.7 million)." It "contains taxonomic information (hierarchies), species names, synonyms, descriptions, illustrations and literature references when available...link[s] provide genetic information on protein sequence, nucleic sequence and 3D structures for each taxon ." No pictures.
The Tree of Life
This huge and extremely ambitious project organizes, surveys, and displays the diversity, evolutionary history, and characteristics of all groups of living organisms. The great Tree has roots, a trunk, stems, and branches that connect each organism to all others. Coordinated and edited by David R. Maddison of the University of Arizona, this attractive and expertly managed site has over 1300 pages housed on 20 computers in four countries, and is authored by biologists from around the world. Originally intended for professionals, the site has evolved into one for non-biologists as well. Searchable.
All Species
This site introduces viewers to the idea that all creatures on Earth need to be found and described; the All Species Foundation's main stated goal is to enlist people from all over the world to complete this project in one generation, meaning 25 years. Information includes how this goal is to be attained, news of new species, and an extensive collection of links to biodiversity sites around the world.
Classification of Living Things: An Introduction to the Principles of Taxonomy with a Focus on Human Classification Categories
This is a tutorial about the Linnaean system of classification. With chapters, quizzes, and a glossary, it guides the student in understanding the hierarchical biological classifications that reflect evolutionary changes and relationships between organisms. Some words link to sound files for pronunciation.
NCBI Taxonomy Homepage
The National Center for Biotechnology Information provides this quick and easy tool for finding the complete lineage for the close to 80,000 species whose sequences have been made public by the collaborating sequence databases. Searches can be made by common name as well as scientific name.
Guide to Internet Resources for Biological Taxonomy & Classification
The biological classification schema is a complex system of relationships, links, and layers. This site, written for beginning biology students, brings taxonomy, and the large number of taxonomy Web sites, into an organized, manageable form. Taxonomy on the Web (TOW) is sponsored by the North Harris Montgomery Community College District (TX).
Discover Life (a non-profit organization whose “mission is to assemble and share knowledge about nature in order to improve education, health, agriculture, economic development, and conservation”) has an online encyclopedia containing 1,197,772 species pages with fabulous information.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Section
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/
If your organism is an identified endangered species, you may find a wealth of information here in their searchable database.
FishBase : A Global Information System on Fishes
Information on 30,000 Species with 39800 References , “ contains practically all fish species known to science.” Sponsored by the WorldFish Center , “a non-profit organization that focuses on alleviating poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture and in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.”
ks , rev 9-07