Dear All, thank you for your attention. I was wondering if any of you knew of a specific zoology database resource that contains information about known species that is both comprehensive and accessible through a script?
I have found certain localised information but have not been able to find something that is both consistent in parameters and extensive.
I realise that the available information on various species is likely to vary in amount and detail but maybe one of your know of an organisation or institution that has made an attempt to create a uniform structure that will aid computational interrogation and analysis.
Many thanks All the best
3 answers
What is the beast?
I am unaware of any kind of comprehensive database, but there are smaller databases available that relate to specific families. Whether or not these are accessible by script or not I don't know. The trouble with zoological collections is that taxonomists tend to argue in a never ending fashion over how species relate to each other or even whether certain species exist at all. In short, there is very little consensus in some areas, and as such a database would be very difficult to assemble.
ZooBank has some interesting materials that aren't often collected elsewhere: http://www.zoobank.org/
And when I was researching this issue myself I thought that the Biorepository resources here looked promising. Also serving under-represented data and collections: http://www.biorepositories.org/
Log in to answer this question.