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Select one of the following news items:
- Catalogue of Life Reaches One Million Species
- ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents"
- ITIS Signs Agreement with Species 2000 and the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility to Build Catalog of Life - Read About Other ITIS News Items
April 2, 2007 – Catalogue of Life Reaches One Million Species
The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life has reached one million
species - a major milestone in its quest to complete the first
up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms.
The Catalogue of Life, available on CD and on the Internet
(www.catalogueoflife.org), is the result of a worldwide collaboration
involving so far about 50 contributing databases and the work of 3,000
biologists. The project plans to cover all estimated 1.75 million known species by 2011.
The project is led by Dr. Thomas Orrell, of the Integrated Taxonomic
Information System (ITIS) based at the Smithsonian Institution, National
Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, and by the University of
Reading's Professor Frank Bisby of the Species 2000 organization, based
at the University's Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics.
Dr. Orrell said: "The catalogue will cover all known living organisms,
such as plants, animals and fungi, and micro-organisms such as bacteria,
chromista, protozoa, archaea and viruses."
Professor Bisby said: "This electronic checklist is the modern successor
to the work started by Linnaeus whose 300th birthday is celebrated this
year. It now delivers one million of the world's described species, from
whales to bacteria, mosses to moths, seaweeds to viruses."
A joint biological and informatics team integrates information from
individual databases in the taxonomic classification. Information on
exactly which species should be recognized is validated by experts
before being integrated, a vital difference compared to some other
catalogues available on the Internet.
The project is on course to deliver the fundamental organism catalogue
needed both by the present generation of international biodiversity
programs and the next generation now in planning, such as the Global
Species Information System proposed by the G8 Environment Ministers in
Potsdam two weeks ago.
It is a keystone component in building the world's biodiversity
knowledge systems of the future. It also facilitates analytical systems
working on species, such as modeling and predicting climate change
outcomes on a global scale.
July 28, 2004 – ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents"
ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents", a value added section of its Current Contents Connect® product. The selection was based on meeting the rigorous standards of their editorial staff for: Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Navigation and Design, Applicability and Content, Scope, Audience Level, and Quality of Writing. Thomson ISI is now the owner of BIOSIS.
ITIS Signs Agreement with Species 2000 and the Global
Biodiversity
Information Facility to Build Catalog of Life
On December 19, 2003 — in Washington, DC; Reading, United Kingdom; and Copenhagen, Denmark — the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), Species 2000, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), respectively, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to build the Catalog of Life. The Memorandum provides a basis for mutual support, access, and use of the Catalog of Life, a collaborative effort to provide a coherent and authoritative view on the taxonomy of the 1.75 million known species of living organisms on Earth. The unified catalog is fundamental to such important tasks as developing worldwide conservation strategies and understanding invasive species. With its planned coverage of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms, the program hopes to achieve one of the more elusive goals of modern biology, a total listing of all described species. ITIS and Species 2000 will develop, review, improve, and maintain the Catalog of Life and provide it through electronic networks and on CD-ROM. GBIF will use the Catalog of Life as an index to make the world's biodiversity data freely and universally available via the Internet and other international electronic networks. GBIF encourages, coordinates, and supports the development of worldwide capacity to access the vast amount of biodiversity data held in natural history museum collections, libraries, and biodiversity databases. ITIS is a partnership of several federal agencies (including the USGS), the Smithsonian Institution, NatureServe, Mexico, and Canada and is a vital component of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).
This agreement follows an earlier Memorandum of Understanding, signed by ITIS and Species 2000 representatives on October 6, 2003, for a cooperative operational framework to develop, scientifically review the content of, continuously improve, and maintain the Species 2000 and Integrated Taxonomic Information System Catalog of Life. The Catalog of Life is accessible at http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist.
