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Free Internet encyclopedia will feature all 1.8 million plant and animal
species
Last updated at 16:14pm on 10th May 2007


>From apples to zebras, all 1.8 million known plant and animal species are
to be listed in an Internet-based "Encyclopedia of Life", scientists said
today.

The $100million, 10-year scheme, could aid everyone from children with
biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species.


"The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named
species," said the project's executive director James Edwards. "At the
moment that's 1.8 million."

The free Encyclopedia would focus mainly on animals, plants and fungi with
microbes to follow, blending text, photographs, maps and videos in a common
format for each.

Expansion of the Internet in recent years made the multi-media project
possible.

Demonstration pages at http://www.eol.org include entries about polar
bears, rice, death cap mushrooms and a "yeti crab" with hairy claws,
recently found in the South Pacific.

"This is about giving access to information to everyone," said Jesse
Ausubel, chairman of the project and who works at the Rockefeller
University in New York City.

The Encyclopedia would draw on existing databases for mammals, fishes,
birds, amphibians and plants.

English would be used at the start with translations to other languages.

Edwards said the project would give an overview of life on earth via what
he termed a "macroscope" - the opposite of a microscope through which
scientists usually peer.

Species would be added as they were identified.

Edwards added there might be 8-10 million on earth, adding that estimates
ranged from 5-100 million. Fossil species may also be added in the future.

The encyclopedia, to be run by a team of about 25-35 people, could help
chart threats to species from pollution, habitat destruction and global
warming.

The project is to be led by the U.S. Field Museum, Harvard University,
Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian
Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library -- a group that includes
London's Natural History Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the
Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, England.

Initial funding comes from a $10 million grant from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation.

Extra funds will be raised in coming years. Ausubel noted that 2007 was the
300th anniversary of the birth of Sweden's Carl Linnaeus, influential in
working out ways to classify species.

"If he were alive today we think he'd be jumping up and down celebrating,"
he said.