PlanetCatfish.com

This appeared in this week's issue of Nature. The ICZN is proposing an initiative whereby all taxonomic names with bibliographic information (and ideally copies of the original descriptions) are placed in an open access web register (to be called ZooBank).

From the article by Polaszek et al. (2005). A universal register for animal names. Nature 437: 477.

"We propose a register of new zoological names â?? ZooBank â?? to be established and administered by the ICZN, and bolstered by a mandatory requirement, in the next edition of the code, for the registration of new names. The register would be web-based and open-access, and would cover all taxonomic ranks relevant to the code."

Silurus,
This sounds like a major proposition.
Amanda

Maybe something like 'animal diversity web' can come in handy to achieve this goal... It would form a perfect base for it. I think many biologists with me would be excited if something like this proposition would be realised!!!

I have been waiting for something like this - very nice! The question is - who is going to put up the data for all the names already published? Maybe this is something they have discussed in the paper, but I haven't read it yet

Any idea on whether the database they set up will be able to do complete catalogs of species with all literature references, or will it just be for original descriptions? Either way, it'll be a great service to the community, especially if they include pdf's of the papers!

Jeff

More info here.

thanks Silurus,

Jeff