Life Sciences

This page:
Natural History, Ecology, and Environmental Science | Biology, generally | Botany | Zoology: Mammals: Primates, Marine Mammals

Natural History, Ecology, and Environmental Science

• Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World - Information and images on all 867 ecoregions
• World Biomes
• WWW Sites of Interest to Ecologists
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• International Field Guides - Bibliography of field guides by subject and place

North America:

• NatureServe Explorer - Guide to the plants, animals, and ecosystems of North America

California Natural History:

• California Geography, Geology, Hazards, and Natural History - Many maps (U.S. Geological Survey)
• To See a World, Marin County - The natural history of a mountain
• See also Environmental Science in my Water Librarian pages
• See also Environmental Politics

Biology, generally

• BiologyBrowser - A rich portal from Biosis
• Intute: Health & Life Sciences - Major hub; includes search engines for medicine, animal health, biological research, the natural world, and agriculture, food, and forestry
• Bioresearch Catalogue
• Natural History Catalogue
• Biogate - "Our 1000 best links in the biological sciences" (Lund University, Sweden)
• BioMed Central - 100 open access journals in biology and medicine
• CSU BioWeb - Exhaustive lists of links in all areas of biology (California State University Stanislaus)
• Infomine of biological, medical, and agricultural sites
• See also Agriculture and Medicine

Biology Dictionaries:

• BioTech Life Sciences Dictionary (University of Texas)
• Life Science Dictionary (University of Texas)

Biology Index and Preprints:

• BioOne - Free index to biological, ecological, and environmental science journals; pay-per-view to see articles
• arXiv - Preprints in quantitative biology (Cornell and Los Alamos National Laboratory)
• See also Botany Indexes, below

Taxonomy and Biodiversity:

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
• Introduction to Phylogeny (University of California, Berkeley)
• NCBI Taxonomy Browser
• Tree of Life Web Project - Phylogeny and biodiversity

Historic Literature of Biology:

• Biodiversity Heritage Library - Electronic copies of historic works on biodiversity from the libraries of major universities, museums, and gardens

Special Aspects:

• BioEthicsWeb - Ethical issues in biology and medicine (a Wellcome gateway)
• Bugs in the News - The truth about those scary microbes
• MendelWeb - Annotated versions of the seminal works in genetics

Botany

• Botany.com - Encyclopedia of plants and flowers, botanical dictionary, and more
• Botany Virtual Library
• Forestry Virtual Library
• IBS: Vascular Plant Families and Genera
• Internet Directory for Botany
• Plants National Database - Information on all kinds of plants (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
• Survey of the Plant Kingdoms

Botany Indexes:

• Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases (Agricultural Reseach Services, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
• Index to American Botanical Literature (New York Botanical Garden)
• Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature - Covers flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns (Royal Botanic Garden, Kew)
• APIRS: The database of aquatic, invasive, and wetland plants (University of Florida)
• See also Biology Index and Preprints, above

Zoology

• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan)
• National Zoological Park home page
• In Search of Giant Squid (Smithsonian)
• InfoNatura - Animals of Latin America

Insects:

• Monarch Watch - Track the annual migration of monarch butterflies in North America by reading the reports of observers

Birds:

• Virtual Bird Field Guide (About.com)

Ornithology Indexes:

• Ornithological World Literature (OWL) - Index to the scientific literature on birds
• Raptor Information System (U.S. Geological Survey)

Mammals:

• Hall of Mammals (University of California, Berkeley)
• Mammal Species of the World (National Museum of Natural History)

Primates:

• The eSkeletons Project - Comparative skeletons of primates, including humans
• Living Links - Center for the advanced study of ape and human evolution
• Primate Info Net (Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center)
• Becoming Human
• Human Evolution: The Fossil Evidence in 3D - This is a really cool Shockwave application that lets you view primate crania from all sides. It's part of a larger project on CD-ROM. (UC Santa Barbara)
• Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution - Descriptions and charts of our hominid forebears; excellent pictures of their skulls
• For more on human biology, see my Human Body (Medicine) page

Primatology Index:

• PrimateLit - Database indexing literature on primates from 1940 to the present

Whales and Other Marine Mammals:

• Marine Mammal Links and Information - Sites recommended by WhaleNet
• Whale Conservation Institute
• Whale Watching Web
• WhaleNet
• Whales on the Net
• Monterey Bay Whale Watch - Some good information on sightings, as well as advertising for their whale watching trips. [gowhales.com]