Tag: taxonomy

Tree of Life Project

Tree of Life web project.

The Tree of Life web project is a growing online collaborative project to:

to contain a page with pictures, text, and other information for every species and for each group of organisms, living or extinct.

Direwolf distribution in the U.S. from Faunmap.

It’s a great starting point for looking at the tree of life because each page has links to a wealth of online resources. One of the links on the Mammalia page, for example, is to Faunmap, an online database that produces maps of where different modern and extinct mammalian species can be found in the United States.

All the pages on the Tree of Life website are linked by the branches of the tree of life. The Class Mammalia links up to its parent Therapsida and down to the its Orders such as Monotremata (one of my favorites) and Eutheria, the placenta mammals.

The site is authored by professional scientists and science educators so has that credibility. Most of the images also allow free, non-commercial use. Thanks to Anna C. for the link.

Class Insecta

Dragonfly in flight. Image by Luc Viatour.

Since we’re focusing on the life sciences this year I want to complete the nature trail. Part of this project is to catalog the biodiversity on the trail. I’d like to have students specialize on the different types of organisms we find. Undoubtedly, the Class Insecta will be well represented. The site, Entomology for Beginners is a great basic resource. It starts with very simple cartoons of insect parts but also has a great key to insect orders which walks you through the comparisons you need to make to identify the Orders in which a particular insect belongs.

The site also has a page on simulating the dynamics of insect populations using a simple model. This may be for the more advanced student however.

A more general guide to bugs (Phylum Arthropoda) can be found at Bug Guide. Their Clickable Guide to the left of the page is a great starting place.

Insect. Image by Luc Viatour.

Luc Viatour has a large gallery of macro images of members of the Phylum Arthropoda.