Internet Encyclopedia Will Contain Info. On 1.8 Million of Earth's Species

There will be a living, always changing, On line encyclopedia available for use by scientists, professors researchers and all other educators along with anyone who just wants to look. The unique Web-site called the Encyclopedia of Life is in the process of being created by scientists who will list statistics, pictures, video clips and other information about the approximately 1.8 million species of life currently known to man and will continue to catalog other species as they are discovered. One of the most recent species to be discovered is the Yeti crab from Easter Island. Scientists began the tedious task of listing the vital information as far back as the 1990s on web pages according to an article done by Jeremy Manier for the Chicago Tribune and found on The Orange County Register.

"It would be like Google Earth for the tree of life," said Mark Westneat, a curator of zoology at The Field Museum, one of the projects collaborators. The project started out slowly but as technology advanced, the work on the daunting project began speeding up. Eventually researchers are hoping to not only include living species but possibly species that have been extinct for millions of years. There are also plans for creating a GenBank that would enable scientists to compare the DNA of species with each other. In time researchers and scientists might use the system for such things as predicting where famine or drought might cause agricultural catastrophes.

Due to a generous contribution of a grant of $10 million from philanthropist, Chicago based John D.and Catherine T. MacAuthor Foundation and also $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation the project was able to gain major ground.

Scientists around the world are asked and expected to contribute information along with a multitude of other experts to refine and update existing and future data. Each species will have its own Web-page with listing and maps of habitats and how it entwines itself throughout the circle of life. The Field Museum will work with software engineers that will combine the huge data base and make it accessible to the average person. The Encyclopedia of Life will not just include animals species but all living things. A sample page on EOL lists rice as possibly the oldest cultivated grain known. It currently feeds 2.5 billion people around the world. You might want to check out this article about disappearing Snow Leopards.You may click on the link The Encyclopedia of Life to view sample Web pages currently set up. Sources for this article are as follows: www.eol.org , www.chicagotribune.com , www.theocregister.com