Catalogue of Life
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Cover of DVD version of database
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Type of site
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Taxonomic catalogue |
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| Available in | English |
| Website | catalogueoflife.org |
| Alexa rank |
 672,656 (Feb 2015[update]) |
| Commercial | no |
| Registration | not required |
| Launched | June 2001 |
| Current status | active |
The Catalogue of Life, started in June 2001 by Species 2000 and Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth. The Catalogue currently compiles data from 158 peer-reviewed taxonomic databases, that are maintained by specialist institutions around the world. The Catalogue provides a dynamic edition, which is updated regularly (and in which data can change without tracking of those changes) and an Annual Checklist, which provides a dated, verifiable reference for the usage of names and associated data. Development of the Catalogue of Life was funded through the Species 2000 europa (EuroCat), 4d4Life and i4Life projects in 2003-2013.
The sixteenth edition of the catalogue lists 1.64 million species for all kingdoms as of April 2016, with coverage of well over three quarters of the estimated 1.9 million species known to science.
The Catalogue of Life employs a simple data structure to provide information on synonymy, grouping within a taxonomic hierarchy, common names, distribution and ecological environment.
Much of the use of the Catalogue is to provide a backbone taxonomy for other global data portals and biological collections. Through the i4Life project it has formal partnerships with Global Biodiversity Information Facility, European Nucleotide Archive, Encyclopedia of Life, European Consortium for the Barcode of Life, IUCN Red List, and Life Watch. The public interface includes both search and browse functions as well as offering multi lingual services.
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