Biology: Biology Names

The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011.

EoL is a new project to create an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and
known on this planet.

ITIS provides authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

Curated classification and nomenclature for all of the organisms in the public sequence databases; currently represents about 10% of described species; the database can be searched by common or scientific names, or browsed by broad (phylogenetic) categories of organisms.

Species 2000 is a ‘federation’ of database organizations working closely with users, taxonomists and sponsoring agencies. Each database covers all known species in the group, using a consistent taxonomic system. The participating databases are widely distributed throughout the world and currently number 52. The program in partnership with the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) of North America currently produces the Catalogue of Life. This is used by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, http://www.gbif.org/) and Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) as the taxonomic backbone to their web portals. Species 2000 receives funding from GBIF.

Scientific names of plants and animals are not known for their entertainment value. Here is a collection of scientific names worthy a second look.
SEE the alphabetical listing of curious (and weird) names

Whether it's a shrewdness of apes, a pandemonium of parrots or a zeal of zebras, lots of animals have bizarre, little-known names when they cluster into crowds. (Gropus of animals, such as a herd of cattle, a school of fish (in the water) or a brace of fish (in a creel) are known as collective nouns or collectives (aka "terms of venery").

The ICZN is responsible for producing the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature - a set of rules for the naming of animals and the resolution of nomenclatural problems. Be sure to scan and use its special features, database sites, and publications