Using
the Biological Literature
Web Resources
|
Using
the Biological Literature |
Zoology is "the scientific study of animals," according to the Oxford Dictionary of Biology, 4th ed, 2000. Entomology is treated separately in its own section, since it has traditionally been treated as a separate discipline. The other branches of zoology such as ornithology or nematology are not separated in this section; rather, the arrangement is by type of material following the pattern established earlier.
Recent Ornithological Literature. 1986- . Washington, DC: American Ornithologists' Union, British Ornithologists' Union, and Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. Quarterly.
This publication is a joint supplement to The Auk, The Emu, and Ibis, and is free with subscription to any of the journals. It attempts to provide comprehensive coverage of the world literature in ornithology, scanning about 900 titles. A "List of Journals Scanned" is published each year in the fourth supplement. The bibliography is divided by broad subject category and includes information on new and renamed journals. Starting in 1999, the bibliography is no longer available in print but can be accessed on the Web.
American Association for Zoological Nomenclature. c/o National Museum of Natural History, MRC 168, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560. E-mail: kensley.brian@nmnh.si.edu.
Founded 1983, 250 members. For those interested in the systematics of both living and extinct animals. Publishes AAZN Newsletter.
American Cetacean Society. P.O. Box 1391, San Pedro, CA 90731. Phone: 310-548-6279. E-mail: acs@pobox.com.
Founded in 1967, 1500 members. Laypeople and professionals interested in whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Publishes Spyhopper and Whalewatcher. Web site provides information on scientific and legislative issues, whale watching trips, publications, and has an extensive list of links.
American Fisheries Society. 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 110, Bethesda, MD 20814. Phone: 301-897-8616. Fax: 301-897-8096. E-mail: main@fisheries.org.
Founded in 1870, 9000 members. International organization for aquatic sciences and fisheries professionals. Publishes AFS Membership Directory and Handbook, Fisheries: Bulletin of the American Fisheries Society, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, Progressive Fish-Culturist, and Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. The Web site contains membership information, job postings, and links to other fisheries pages.
American Malacological Society. c/o Eugene P. Keferl, Coastal Georgia Community College, 3700 Altama Ave., Brunswick, GA 31520-3644. Phone: 912-262-3089. E-Mail: kefer@bc9000.bc.peachnet.edu.
Founded in 1931. 600 members. For professionals and hobbyists interested in mollusks. Publishes American Malacological Bulletin and supplements and Newsletter. Formerly American Malacological Union. Web site includes membership information, brief list of links.
American Ornithologist's Union. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 20560. Phone: 202-357-2051. Fax: 202-633-8084. E-mail: aou@nmnh.si.edu.
Founded 1883, 4,000 members. Publishes The Auk, Check-List of North American Birds, Membership List (triennial), Handbook of North American Birds, Ornithological Monographs, Ornithological Newsletter. Web site for membership information.
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Grice Marine Laboratory, University of Charleston, 205 Fort Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC 29412. Phone: 843-406-4017. E-mail: asih@mail.utexas.edu.
Founded 1913, 3,600 members. For scientists and students interested in fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Publishes Copeia. Web site includes membership information, related links.
American Society of Mammalogists. c/o Duane Smith, 290 MLBM, Bringham Young Univ., Provo, UT 84602. Phone: 801-378-2492.
Founded in 1919, 3600 members. Publishes Journal of Mammalogy and Mammalian Species. Web site includes membership information and links to mammal information and images.
Association of Field Ornithologists. c/o Charles Duncan, Allen Press, P.O. Box 1897, Lawrence, KS 66044-1897.
Founded 1924, 2,400 members. Formerly Northeastern Bird-Banding Association. Publishes Journal of Field Ornithology. Web site primarily for membership informaton.
Cooper Ornithological Society. c/o Martin L. Morton, Occidental College, Biology Department, 1600 Campus Rd., Los Angeles CA 90041.
Founded 1893, 2200 members. Professional ornithological society. Publishes Condor, The Flock (directory), Studies in Avian Biology. Web site primarily for publication and membership information.
The Crustacean Society. PO Box 1897, Lawrence, KS 66044-8897. Phone: 913-843-1221.
Founded 1980, 850 members. Publishes The Ecdysiast and The Journal of Crustacean Biology. Web site includes membership information, journal information, and related links.
Herpetologists' League. Biological Sciences Box 4050, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS 66801-4050. Phone: 316- 341-5606. E-mail: sievert1@esumail.emporia.edu.
Founded 1936, 2,000 members. Publishes Herpetologica and Herpetological Monographs. Web site includes information on membership and links to other herpetological societies.
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. 1313 Dolley Madison Blvd., Ste. 402, McClean, VA 22101-3926. Phone: 703-790-1745. E-mail: sicb@burklnc.com.
Founded in 1890, 2300 members. For professional zoologists. Publishes American Zoologist. Formerly American Society of Zoologists; absorbed American Morphological Society. Web site primarily for membership information, but also includes searchable database of memberŐs interests.
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Biology Dept., St. Louis University, 3507 Laclede Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103-2010. Phone: 314-977-3916. Fax: 314-977-3658. E-mail: ssar@slu.
Founded 1958, 2,700 members. Formerly Ohio Herpetological Society. Publishes Herpetological Circulars, Herpetological Review, Journal of Herpetology. Web site includes membership information and related links on herpetology and conservation.
Society of Nematologists. Nematology Dept., University of California, Riverside, CA 92521. Phone: 909-787-5819.
Founded in 1961, 650 members. For people interested in basic and applied nematology. Publishes Journal of Nematology, and Nematology Newsletter. Web site provides membership information, related links, and information on publications and discussion groups.
Society of Protozoologists. PO Box 1897, Lawrence, KS 66044-8897. Phone: 914-365-8542, E-mail: kundell@cb.uga.edu.
Founded 1947, 1125 members. Publishes The Abstracts, Directory of Members, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, Newsletter, Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. Web site includes membership information, related links.
Society of Systematic Biologists. c/o Peggy Pagano, Taylor & Francis, 47 Runway Rd., Ste. G, Levittown, PA 19057-4738. Phone: 800-821-8312.
Founded in 1948, 1,550 members. Publishes Systematic Biology. Formerly Society of Systematic Zoology. Web site includes membership information, related links.
Wilson Ornithological Society. University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology, Bird Division, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079. Phone: 734-764-0457. Fax: 734-763-4080.
Founded 1888, 2250 members. For professional ornithologists and hobbyists interested in the scientific study of birds. Publishes Wilson Bulletin and Flock (triennial membership directory). The Web site is primarily for membership information.
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Atlases, Checklists, and Identification Manuals
There are a large number of identification tools, including atlases, manuals, faunas, and field guides. This section annotates only a select portion of them. See the General Sources chapter for descriptions of the major field guide series, for instance. Anatomical atlases are listed under Handbooks, below.
2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Cambridge, U.K.: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 2000.
The IUCN Red Lists of various plant and animal groups have been standard sources for information on threatened and endangered species for many years. Beginning with the 2000 edition, the lists have been combined and will only be available electronically, both on the Web and on CD-ROM.
Check-List of North American Birds: Species of Birds of North America from the Arctic through Panama, Including the West Indies and Hawaiian Islands. 7th ed. Washington, DC: American Ornithologists Union Staff, 1998. 829 p. $49.95. ISBN 189127600X.
The checklist is prepared by the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union and is updated irregularly. Each species is listed with scientific and English name, original citation, habitat, distribution (summer and winter), and notes. The list of birds included in the checklist is also available on the Web. Downloadable PDF and DBF versions are available from this site.
Iverson, John B. A Revised Checklist with Distribution Maps of the Turtles of the World. Richmond, IN: J. Iverson, 1992. 282 p. ISBN 0961743105, 0961743107 (paper).
Includes distribution maps as well as the usual taxonomic and nomenclatural information. Also available on the Web.
Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, 2nd ed. Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1993. 1206 p. $80.00. ISBN 1560982179.
A checklist, providing original citation, type locality, distribution, status, synonyms, and comments. Also available on the Web.
Sibley, Charles G. and Burt L. Monroe. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. 1111 p. $140.00. ISBN 0300049692.
The goals of this work are to delineate the present distribution of the birds of the world, list the species in a classification based on DNA (see Sibley and Alquist, above), and offer a gazetteer and maps for locating regions mentioned in the atlas. The indexes are by scientific and English name. A Supplement was published in 1993 with updates and corrections. Also available on the Web.
Classification, Nomenclature, and Systematics
Amphibiaweb: An Information System for Amphibian Conservation Biology. Berkeley: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, 2000.
This database provides taxonomic information on all species of amphibians taken from Frost's Amphibian Species of the World (below). The intent is to provide detailed taxonomic and ecological information on all 5,000 species of amphibians of the world. At the time of viewing, pages for common species such as Rana pipiens and Bufo americanus contained only taxonomic information, photographs, and links to museum collections. Other pages such as Bufo bufo were more complete, with description, life history, distribution, and references. The site also includes information on the decline in amphibian populations worldwide.
Eschmeyer, William N. Catalog of Fishes. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences, 1998. 3 v. plus CD-ROM. $150.00. ISBN 0940228475.
Lists genera in alphabetical order with name, author, date, type specimen, remarks, and status. Separate sections list names by class and literature cited. Updates the author's Catalog of the Genera of Recent Fishes, published in 1990. Available on the Web. The online version includes all species, genera, and references, along with the classification, introduction, and list of museum abbreviations from the print version, but excludes the appendices and other material.
Frost, Darrel R. Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 2000. Version 2.20 (1 September 2000).
Provides scientific name, authority, year of publication, type species, specimen, and location, distribution, and status. Updates the author's Amphibian Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographical Reference, published in 1985.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Nomenclatural Glossary for Zoology. York, England: BIOSIS UK, 1996- .
Names of North American Birds. New York, NY: National Audubon Society, 1997- .
"The list below is provided for your reference when writing about birds. It includes about 1,975 species occurring in North America, Mexico, and Hawaii. The English, or common, name is in the left-hand column and the corresponding Latin, or scientific, name is on the right."
The Web is a treasure trove of taxonomic information for animals of all kinds. Many of the Web pages are very technical in nature, and are often specialized. However, some popular groups such as birds or mammals are featured in many Web sites aimed at amateurs. The major taxonomic sites such as the Tree of Life that cover both plants and animals are covered in the General Sources chapter.
This site is "an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan." It consists of species accounts written by zoology students, plus descriptions of higher orders prepared by professional biologists. As with most other projects of this scope, it is not complete. Since the project depends on volunteer assistance from students, some "sexy" orders are nearly completely covered (whales and dolphins, for instance), while other less attractive groups such as rodents are more sparsely listed. The student-authored species accounts follow a standard template and are reviewed by professionals.
The Electronic Zoo. Ken Boschert, author. St. Louis, MO: Washington University.
Categorizes and lists many Web sites on animals and veterinary medicine, covering everything from animal taxonomic groups to fictional animals to career information for would-be vets. This popular site began life in 1993 as a Gopher list, and has been updated since by the same person.
The Internet Resource Guide to Zoology. BIOSIS.
An excellent starting point for zoological research on the Web. Contains a number of links to sites from a listing of zoological conferences and nomenclature resources to a "Guide to the Animal Kingdom for Students and Educators". Also provides an extensive listing of Web resources arranged by taxonomic group.
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