Encyclopedia of Life Reaches Historic One Million Species Pages Milestone

ScienceDaily 9 May 12;

The Encyclopedia of Life has surged past one million pages of content with the addition of hundreds of thousands of new images and specimen data from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Launched in 2007 with the support of leading scientific organizations around the world, the Encyclopedia of Life provides global access to knowledge about life on Earth by building a web page for each of the 1.9 million recognized species.

The new content from NMNH recently added to EOL includes type specimen information from the botany, entomology, vertebrate zoology and invertebrate zoology departments. In taxonomy, type specimens are the first found material from which new species are scientifically defined and given names. These specimens are vital resources for scientists who study the classification of organisms and to all studies of comparative biology.

"The Encyclopedia of Life is a consortium of partners who generate and integrate biodiversity information worldwide. To achieve our ambitious goals, we have to continuously increase the number of species pages and the amount of trusted information in each of them," said Dr. Erick Mata, EOL Executive Director. "Thanks to the hard work of our international collaborators, we hit the one million page mark with plenty of momentum for the next five years."

The new images now available on EOL include specimen photos of bones and skins, mounted specimens, x-rays, and photos from collecting expeditions. Some highlights include image galleries for pressed plants, mollusk shells and other marine invertebrates, insects, fish and herpetology.

Reaching the milestone of one million pages of rich content underscores how far the EOL initiative has come since its inception five years ago. When EOL first launched, it offered only 30,000 species pages from fewer than a dozen content partners. Today, EOL has more than 200 collaborators around the world, a global member community, and active contributors who share their time, creativity and knowledge through EOL.

"This isn't just a big milestone for us -- it's also an important one for all of our users, supporters and partners who have helped build the global EOL network," said Dr. Cynthia Parr, Director of EOL's Species Pages Group. "We are well on our way towards building a resource that will have maximum impact on the understanding and conservation of biological diversity."