Encyclopedia of Life

View
Twitter

Credit: Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) was established to make comprehensive, authenticated information about the world’s biodiversity freely available over the Internet. Encyclopedia of Life’s portal includes hundreds of thousands of authenticated species pages, 1.4 million base pages and links to 13 million pages of digitized biodiversity literature. The features available on the EOL portal make participation possible by everyone. Users including students, scientists and members of the public can contribute photos and videos via the EOL Flickr Group, apply tags to images and provide comments on the content.

The EOL provides an engaging and informative learning platform where students and others can work together to help build this global resource and learn about biological diversity worldwide.

Collaborator Contributions

Mangroves: One Species at a Time

Follow researchers Candy Feller and Dennis Whigham from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center as they scramble, climb, crawl, and creep through the tangled roots of a mangrove forest. In this episode of the Podcast of Life, learn what’s threatening these unique ecosystems where the ocean meets the land.

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: One Species at a Time

What is it like to be eyeball to eyeball with a fish the size of a Volkswagen? In this episode of the Podcast of Life, learn how a tuna fisherman and a biologist are teaming up to tag bluefin tuna, and how those tags are revealing surprises that might help save tuna from their own popularity in sushi restaurants.

Tube worms called riftia occupy a deep-sea vent

Riftia Worms: One Species at a Time

In this episode of the Podcast of Life, host Ari Daniel Shapiro dives deep to discover a white worm as tall as your refrigerator that breathes through bright red feathery "lips." This isn’t a creature from outer space. Meet Riftia, a tube worm that lives in deep-sea vents, and learn the surprising lessons this denizen of the abyss is teaching scientists about life on Earth.

Dinoflagellates: One Species at a Time

Ari Daniel Shapiro is joined for this episode of The Podcast of Life by science contributor Josh Kurz, who tells the story of dinoflagellates through "music from the bottom of the food chain." There are "billions of these microscopic creatures in every bucket of the salty sea," Kurz reveals. Learn which dinoflagellate has a special glow, and which one is responsible for killing more people every year than sharks.

An illustration of a giant squid (Architeuthis dux)

Giant Squid: One Species at a Time

How do you get two dead Giant Squid the size of a school bus from a fishing boat in Spain to Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.? Call in the U.S. Navy! In this episode of the One Species at a Time, find out how Operation Calamari unfolded and how the museum managed to put their new giant squid on display.

Coral Reefs: One Species at a Time

Coral reefs are bustling cities of marine life, until rising ocean temperatures turn them into ghost towns. Can reefs spring back from devastating bleaching events? In this episode of the Podcast of Life, Ari Daniel Shapiro and researcher Dr. Randi Rotjan of the New England Aquarium, journey to the remote Phoenix Islands to find out.

A bonaire banded box jellyfish, Tamoya ohboya

Box Jellies: One Species at a Time

In this episode of the Podcast of Life, learn how three fiery, painful stings during an early morning swim in Hawaii changed the life of researcher Angel Yanagihara. Once the young biochemist had recovered from her box jelly encounter, Carybdea alata had her full attention. Now she works to unlock the secrets of venom of these beautiful, and sometimes dangerous, angels of the sea.

great white shark swims through the ocean

Great White Shark: One Species at a Time

In this episode of the Podcast of Life, students from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School in Massachusetts and La Salle Academy in Rhode Island question shark researcher Greg Skomal about a charismatic predator at the top of the ocean food chain: the Great White Shark. Learn some surprising facts and the answers to questions like what preys on the Great White and do they mate for life?

Sea Cucumber: One Species at a Time

What reef animal comes in a rainbow of crazy colors, can throw out its stomach to immobilize predators, then creep away and regrow a brand-new stomach? It’s the sea cucumber, prized as a gastronomic delight by some cultures and beginning to yield some of its secrets to scientists. Follow Podcast of Life host Ari Daniel Shapiro from Chinatown to the reefs of Fiji to learn more about these amazing creatures.

North Atlantic Right Whale: One Species at a Time

Hear how research unfolds at sea in a tiny Zodiac surrounded by creatures that measure longer than a city bus. Playing female whale calls into the water, researcher Susan Parks suddenly finds herself the center of attention of a group of male North Atlantic right whales. Will she be able to gather crucial data before a breaching whale crashes down on her boat? Find out in this podcast from the Encyclopedia of Life.

Visit Their site