We celebrate recent achievements in biodiversity informatics. Â Enjoy exploring the new GBIF interface for the global mapping of occurrence records. Try zooming and using the time slider: Â https://www.gbif.org/occurrence…
…a Census of Marine life initiative. As reported in Science, for the first time DNA sequencing was performed on the rolling seas, telescoping into just three weeks what would normally…
…reliable index for assigning unknown specimens to known species. Although we are just at the beginning of compiling barcodes, and although we need phylogenetically-informed mathematical analysis about how to define…
…Warming? Just Remember Human Ingenuity An old story is repeating itself in all the horror stories of global warming. Those predictions of melting ice caps, flooded cities, mass extinctions, monster…
…local African markets. Just two years ago, in Syst Biol 55: 844, 2006 some taxonomists worried whether DNA barcoding would ever be useful: “The truth is that DNA barcoding will…
…it would get this far,” says Kipling Will), and University of Guelph, Ontario. He concludes with an evocative analogy: “barcodes are not just devices to put names on animals; they…
…the uncertainty inherent in any identification method. Even “gold standard” tests have error rates. Just as a medical laboratory considers a range of factors when adopting a new test method–cost,…
…lizards, which led to a snake-like mitochondrial genome. I note this conclusion is based on analyzing just 2 of the more than 350 species in 52 genera in Agamidae. Are…
…just three months ago a community standard for DNA barcoding land plants was announced, namely the plastid genes rbcL and matK, with species-level identification in 72% of cases tested and…
…published this year). Phew, it’s tiring just listing the lists! Although by my assessment the various lists are about 90% concordant at species level, they do differ, only partly because…