Electronic atlas of sea anemones: an OBIS pilot project

Abstract

For most of the Earth's biota, especially invertebrate and marine organisms, too few accurately and precisely identified museum specimens exist to take advantage of applications being developed to collect, collate, and interpret collection data electronically. Assembled from the primary literature, my species-centered electronic database to sea anemones of the world contains a definitive list of nominal species, each in its original binomen, with full bibliographic citation. For each species, the database lists any type specimens, and contains images of some of them, including images from the original description. Latitude, longitude, and depth, according to the original description, constitute the geographical component of the database; coordinates can be displayed on a map and queried. Localities from publications other than the original description are being added, and synonymous names are being linked. Enhancing the number of records per species, these steps will allow a geographical range to be defined for each species. Taxa allied to sea anemones will be added, and biotic and environmental datasets are being assembled so the database can be used to test biogeographical, systematic, and ecological hypotheses.