The Reptile Database is a scientific
database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...
that collects taxonomic information on all living
reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
(i.e. no fossil species such as
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s). The database focuses on species (as opposed to higher ranks such as families) and has entries for all currently recognized ~13,000 species and their subspecies, although there is usually a lag time of up to a few months before newly described species become available online. The database collects scientific and common names, synonyms, literature references, distribution information, type information,
etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
, and other taxonomically relevant information.
History
The database was founded in 1995 as EMBL Reptile Database when the founder, Peter Uetz, was a graduate student at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Thure Etzold had developed the first web interface for the EMBL DNA sequence database which was also used as interface for the Reptile Database. In 2006 the database moved to
The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR) and briefly operated as TIGR Reptile Database until TIGR was merged into the
J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) where Uetz was an associate professor until 2010. Since 2010 the database has been maintained on servers in the Czech Republic under the supervision of Peter Uetz and Jirí Hošek, a Czech programmer. The database celebrated its 25th anniversary together with
AmphibiaWeb
AmphibiaWeb is an American non-profit website that provides information about amphibians. It is run by a group of universities working with the California Academy of Sciences: San Francisco State University, the University of California at Berkel ...
which had its 20th anniversary in 2021.
Content
As of September 2020, the Reptile Database lists about 11,300 species (including another ~2,200 subspecies) in about 1200
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
(see figure), and has more than 50,000 literature references and about 15,000 photos. The database has constantly grown since its inception with an average of 100 to 200 new species described per year over the preceding decade. Recently, the database also added a more or less complete list of primary
type specimens
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...
.
Relationship to other databases
The Reptile Database has been a member of the
Species 2000 project that has produced the
Catalogue of Life
The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic In ...
(CoL), a meta-database of more than 150 species databases that catalog all living species on the planet. The CoL provides taxonomic information to the ''
Encyclopedia of Life
The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of ...
'' (EoL). The Reptile Database also collaborates with the
World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), the
citizen science
Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes r ...
project
iNaturalist
iNaturalist is a social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its website or from its mobile applic ...
,
and has links to the
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
Redlist database. The
NCBI taxonomy database links out to the Reptile Database.
See also
*
References
External links
{{Wikidata property, P5473
The Reptile Database��Home Page
Reptile Database Search��Search page at Reptarium
Biological databases
Biodiversity databases
Herpetology