Cover of DVD version of database | |
Type of site | Taxonomic catalogue |
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Available in | English |
Website | catalogueoflife.org |
Alexa rank | 201,382 ((As of June 2018))[1] |
Commercial | no |
Registration | not required |
Launched | June 2001 |
Current status | active |
The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative index of known species of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic Information System. The catalogue is available in twelve languages and is used by research scientists, citizen scientists, educators, and policy makers.[2] The catalogue is used by the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Barcode of Life Data System, Encyclopedia of Life, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.[3] The catalogue currently compiles data from 168 peer-reviewed taxonomic databases, that are maintained by specialist institutions around the world. As of 2018, the catalogue lists 1.8m of the world's 1.9m named species.[4]
The Catalogue of Life employs a simple data structure to provide information on synonymy, grouping within a taxonomic hierarchy, common names, distribution and ecological environment.[4]
The Catalogue provides a dynamic edition,[5] which is updated monthly (and in which data can change without tracking of those changes) and an Annual Checklist,[6] which provides a dated, verifiable reference for the usage of names and associated data. Development of the Catalogue of Life was funded through the Species 2000 europa (EuroCat),[7] 4d4Life,[8] i4Life[9] projects in 2003-2013, and currently by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands and Species Files group at Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign-Urbana IL, USA.
Much of the use of the Catalogue is to provide a backbone taxonomy for other global data portals and biological collections. Through the i4Life project it has formal partnerships with Global Biodiversity Information Facility, European Nucleotide Archive, Encyclopedia of Life, European Consortium for the Barcode of Life, IUCN Red List, and Life Watch. The public interface includes both search and browse functions as well as offering multi lingual services.[3]
The catalogue listed 300,000 species by 2003, 500,000 species by 2005, and over 800,000 species by 2006.[10] As of 2018, the catalogue lists 1.8m of the world's 1.9m named species.[4] There are an estimated 14m species, however this number is not certain as there is a lack of data on the possible number of insect, nematode, bacteria and fungus species.[11]
In 2015, an expert panel presented a consensus hierarchical classification of life. The classification embraces 1.6 million species provided by more than 3,000 taxonomists. The unified, coherent, hierarchically-ranked system is known as the Catalogue of Life.[12]
In the same year, the Catalogue of Life, Barcode of Life Data System, Biodiversity Heritage Library, Encyclopedia of Life, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility commenced building a single shared authoritative nomenclature and taxonomic foundation that could be used to order and connect biodiversity data. COL+ will develop a clearinghouse covering scientific names across all life, provide a single taxonomic view, and provide an avenue for feedback from content authorities.[3]
Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalogue of Life.
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