Workshop on Taxonomic Authority Files

[Hugh Wilson]

Home website for this is:

http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis/

and a look at the steering committee, Database Work Group, Taxonomy
Work Group produces a fairly large group of US Federal employees that
are evidently responsible for 'data' on the

Aquatic Isopods of the World                         Amphibians of
North America                         Turtles of the World
Crocodiles of theWorld Prawns of theWorld Marine Fishes of North
America Mammals of North America Caridean Shrimp of North America
Crabs of North America Lobsters of the World

The "User Defined Report" options works pretty well and it looks like
they have a fairly complete set of data for North American vascular
plants - at least the genera I checked - but no indication of its
source or curation.  The data download also works, at least to
preview, but I can't find a definition of the data structure.  Other
options - such as a 'taxonomic toolbox' - require 'authorization' via
a password.


On 15 May 98 at 13:46, Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CRI.NZ> wrote:

Priority:      normal
Date:          Fri, 15 May 1998 13:46:56 +1100
Reply-to:      Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CRI.NZ>
From:          Geoff Read <g.read at NIWA.CRI.NZ>
Organization:  NIWA (Nat. Inst. Water & Atmos. Research)
Subject:       Re: Workshop on Taxonomic Authority Files
To:            Multiple recipients of list TAXACOM <TAXACOM at CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU>

One example of a taxonomic authority compilation project is ITIS,
Integrated Taxonomic Information System, for which the last internet
Scout Report just gave a glowing promotion.

It began:

"Six federal agencies have worked together to develop an efficient system
for naming and classifying all of nature's living organisms. ..."

I received a polite points-noted form letter from the Scout people to
my suggestion that this might be a slight distortion of reality ... there
being a few predecessors who could claim some credit. :-)

--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>

Hugh D. Wilson
Texas A&M University - Biology
h-wilson at tamu.edu (409-845-3354)
http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~hugh/homepage.html