BIOLOGICAL NAMES

Richard Wakeford

November 2009

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Biological Names

Common name

Scientific name

Tree of Life Species Genus Family Order Class Phylum Kingdom Superkingdom

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A Bear by Any Other Name

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Biological Names

Koala Bear

Phascolarctos cinereus (Goldfuss, 1817)

Phascolarctidae (Owen, 1839) Vombatiformes (Burnett, 1830) Diprotodontia (Owen, 1866) Metatheria (Huxley, 1880) Theria (Parker and Haswell, 1897) Mammalia (Linnaeus, 1758) Vertebrata Chordata Animalia

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Getting the Name Right

Common name or scientific name?

One name for several organisms? (homonyms)

Several names for one organism? (synonyms)

Name is mis-spelt, dubious, disputed or superseded?

Where does the name fit in the Tree? – species, genus etc?

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Getting the Name Right

Ubio

http://www.ubio.org

Biosis Index to Organism Names

http://www.organismnames.com

Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature

http://www.curioustaxonomy.net/

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Getting the Name Right - plants, bacteria & viruses

International Plant Names Database

http://www.ipni.org

List of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature

http://www.bacterio.cict.fr

Universal Virus Database

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/

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Bibliographic References

Biological Abstracts (OvidSP ) BL online from 1985-

Biosis Previews (Thomson) BL online from 1969-

Biological Abstracts (print) 1926-

Zoological Record (Thomson) BL online from 1865-

Nomenclator Zoologicus 1758-1994

http://uio.mbl.edu/NomenclatorZoologicus/

Index Animalium 1758-1800

http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/indexanimalium

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Text & Images

Species2000

http://www.sp2000.org

Biodiversity Heritage Library

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Encyclopedia of Life

http://www.eol.org

Tree of Life

http://tolweb.org

Taxonomy resources - NCBI

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/taxonomyhome.html/index.cgi?chapter=resources

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Data

UK National Biodiversity Network Gateway

http://data.nbn.org.uk

EUNIS (European Nature Information System)

http://eunis.eea.europa.eu

GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)

http://www.gbif.org

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Web Resources

Biology Browser

http://www.biologybrowser.org

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Specimens & Collections

Biocase

http://www.biocase.org