The Encyclopedia of Life: A New Digital Resource for Taxonomy (original) (raw)

2010, System Naturae 250 – The Linnaean Ark

Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command. The page contains the scienti c name of the species, a pictorial or genomic presentation of the primary type specimen on which its name is based, and a summary of its diagnostic traits. The page opens out directly or by linking to other databases, such as ARKive, Ecoport, GenBank and MorphBank. It comprises a summary of everything known about the species' genome, proteome, geographical distribution, phylogenetic position, habitat, ecological relationships and, not least, its perceived practical importance for humanity…. The page is inde nitely expansible. Its contents are continuously peer reviewed and updated with new information. All the pages together form an encyclopedia, the content of which is the totality of comparative biology. E. O. Wilson (2003) Human activities pose an ever-growing threat to biological diversity (Thuiller 2007). Population growth, global climate change, and other environmental perturbations heighten the urgency with which we must discover, formally describe, understand, and protect the world's species of living organisms. At the same time, the general public shows increasing interest in biodiversity and support for efforts to preserve it. In an attempt to respond to both of these imperatives, in May 2007 representatives of several of the world's leading natural history institutions, with initial nancial support from two major private philanthropies, have joined together to create the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). The EOL will dynamically synthesize biodiversity knowledge about all known species, including their taxonomy, geographic distribution, specimens in collections, genetics, evolutionary history, morphology, behavior, ecological relationships, and importance for human well-being, and distribute this information freely through the Internet. It will serve as a primary resource for a wide audience that includes scientists, natural resource managers, conservationists, teachers, and students around