Linda Ward wrote:
> Wouldn't it be nice if we could agree on the characters describing the
> major taxa and pull them together in a consistent manner in a set of
> references?
I am working on a project that does exactly that. My colleagues at the
Australian Museum, Jim Lowry and Roger Springthorpe and I are developing
interactive information retrieval systems for all the Australian marine
amphipod species (about 600 species) to go on the web. We have a web
site crustacea.net which is a part of Australian Museum online where the
information system will be accessible to all. The system includes
interactive keys, synonomies, literature, images and a standardised
description of each species.
We will have a key to family and keys to the species of 3 families
completed in the next month.
http://crustacea.net/ will be the site for similar information systems
for world crustacea and Jim Lowry has run 3 workshops (in Sydney, Sweden
and Maine, USA) to train carcinologists in the preparation of the
information systems using Delta.
This system has great potential for bringing taxonomic information
together in a standardised format and making it available to lots of
users.
Cheers
Penny Berents
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PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS AND NEW POSTCODE
Dr Penny Berents 6 College Street
Collection Manager Sydney 2010
Marine Invertebrates Australia
Australian Museum
PH: 61-2-9320 6134
FAX: 61-2-9320 6042
pennyb at austmus.gov.au
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