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http://animaldiversity.org/

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ARKive - Discover the world's most endangered species Wildscreen's Arkive project was launched in 2003 and grew to become the world's biggest encyclopaedia of life on Earth. With the help of over 7,000 of the world’s best wildlife filmmakers and photographers, conservationists and scientists, Arkive.org featured multi-media fact-files for more than 16,000 endangered species. Freely accessible to everyone, over half a million people every month, from over 200 countries, used Arkive to learn and discover the wonders of the natural world. Since 2013 Wildscreen was unable to raise sufficient funds from trusts, foundations, corporates and individual donors to support the year-round costs of keeping Arkive online. Therefore, the charity had been using its reserves to keep the project online and was unable to fund any dedicated staff to maintain Arkive, let alone future-proof it, for over half a decade.

How do paleontologists excavate fossils The number of fossils found compared to the actual number of plants and animals that are known to have lived on Earth is very small. That's because for something to fossilize, it must die in perfect conditions, and that doesn't happen too often. So excavating the fossils that do exist is a meticulous process. Typically, paleontologists will use delicate tools like paintbrushes and dental picks to slowly remove any rock material that surrounds the fossil. They may also use mist to soften the rock sediment.

HERMES: Hotspot Ecosystem Research on the Margins of European Seas HERMES - an international, multidisciplinary research programme investigating Europe's deep marine ecosystems and their environment Funded by the European Commission, HERMES brought together expertise in biodiversity, geology, sedimentology, physical oceanography, microbiology and biogeochemistry so to better understand the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. HERMES study sites extend from the Arctic to the Black Sea and include biodiversity hotspots such as cold seeps, cold-water coral mounds and reefs, canyons and anoxic environments, and communities found on open slopes.

Emperor Penguin Emperor penguins spend their entire lives on Antarctic ice and in its waters. They survive—breeding, raising young, and eating—by relying on a number of clever adaptations. These flightless birds breed in the winter. After a courtship of several weeks, a female emperor penguin lays one single egg then leaves! Each penguin egg's father balances it on his feet and covers it with his brood pouch, a very warm layer of feathered skin designed to keep the egg cozy. Virtual Labs The links on this page are all VIRTUAL LABS offered by the Glencoe textbook company. These labs give the students the adventure of laboratory experimentation without costly supplies, worrisome environmental and safety issues, or time-consuming clean up. They are from all different areas of science: Biology, Physics, Genetics, Earth Science, Physical Science, and Chemistry. Please feel free to try these at home! Students will be directed to specific labs in class but there are over 100 labs offered here!

Hybrid SHEEP AND GOATS In "The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication" Charles Darwin wrote: "Captain Hutton, in India, crossed a tame goat with a wild one from the Himalaya, and he remarked to me how surprisingly wild the offspring were." Although sheep and goats seem similar and can be mated together, any offspring are generally stillborn due to chromosome mismatch (sheep have 54, goats have 60). At Botswana Ministry of Agriculture, a ram housed with a nanny goat impregnated the goat and a live offspring was produced with 57 chromosomes. It was called "The Toast of Batswana" and is intermediate in type: coarse outer, woolly inner coat, long goat-like legs and heavy sheep-like body.

The ARIES approach Overview With growing interest in using ecosystem services for decision making, demand has grown for systematic methods and tools to quantify ecosystem service values. ARIES maps the potential provision of ecosystem services (sources), their users (use), and biophysical features that can deplete service flows (sinks) using ecological process models or Bayesian models. ARIES then uses a series of agent-based flow algorithms to map actual service flow from ecosystems to people. Integrated modeling platform Through artificial intelligence and semantic modeling, ARIES assembles the appropriate models - deterministic or probabilistic and spatial data to quantify and map ecosystem services at the appropriate spatial scale and ecological and socioeconomic context.

OLogy Fireflies aren't flies at all. They're beetles! Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. The Secret To Chimp Strength February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humans—as much as four-times stronger, some researchers believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. Interactive Documentary Becoming Human is an interactive documentary experience that tells the story of our origins. Journey through four million years of human evolution with your guide, Donald Johanson. Transcripts are available in the following languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Sinhala.

Global biodiversity information facility Try out the new GBIF portal! Why not try out the new GBIF portal at www.gbif.org, which has many more features and includes lots of information about the GBIF community, including great examples of data uses in research and interesting applications? The old GBIF data portal which you are viewing now will continue to be supported until we are satisfied it can be taken down without causing major inconvenience. Be aware that the content here is static and has not been updated since the launch of the new portal on 9 October 2013. If and when a date is confirmed for discontinuing the old data portal, we will post it here with plenty of prior notice.

Data Use Agreement - GBIF Portal Background The goals and principles of making biodiversity data openly and universally available have been defined in the Memorandum of Understanding on GBIF, paragraph 8 (see the relevant excerpts in the attached Annex). The Participants who have signed the MoU have expressed their willingness to make biodiversity data available through their nodes to foster scientific research development internationally and to support the public use of these data. GBIF data sharing should take place within a framework of due attribution.

Science Underground Dogs bark. Cats meow. Ducks quack. These noises might not seem like much to us, but animals are communicating. Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science In a 1786 letter to a friend, Thomas Jefferson called for "the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness."1 Jefferson saw clearly what has become increasingly evident since then: the fortunes of a nation rest on the ability of its citizens to understand and use information about the world around them. We are about to enter a century in which the United States will be even more dependent on science and technology than it has been in the past. Such a future demands a citizenry able to use many of the same skills that scientists use in their work—close observation, careful reasoning, and creative thinking based on what is known about the world. The ability to use scientific knowledge and ways of thinking depends to a considerable extent on the education that people receive from kindergarten through high school. Nevertheless, religious faith and scientific knowledge, which are both useful and important,

ADW (Animal Diversity Web) contient la plupart des espèces et taxa, permet d'obtenir de l'information sur la phylogénie et sur les espèces en tant que telles à l'aide de fiches sur leur histoire naturelle. by melanie_drouin Feb 2

Related:  Science