Tree of Life Web Project
The Tree of Life Web Project ( ToL for short ) is an internet project to collect initial descriptions , information on biodiversity and phylogeny of all life forms in a distributed database.
The original idea comes from David Maddison. The project was officially started on January 5th, 1996 and now includes parts on several Internet servers worldwide.
The structure and content are usually contributed and supervised by scientists, but biology teachers and laypeople (many of the images and other media files are from them) are also involved.
Structure of the database
The database is structured hierarchically according to the phylogenetic ancestry and is displayed as an evolutionary family tree . There are so-called branch pages for groups of organisms to show the family relationships, and leaf pages for the individual life form, for example the species . This is the scientific content.
There are also teaching materials and media collections.
Content of the database
A data sheet (leaf page) is created for each life form, which can contain one or more of the following information:
- introduction
- description
- distribution
- behavior
- literature
- Web sources
In the database you can browse through the family tree along the branches or enter your own search terms in a search field and search for them.
Relationship to the Encyclopedia of Life
Relationships with the Encyclopedia of Life : ToL project focuses on phylogenetic relationships. Divergent family relationships are shown and documented.
literature
- DR Maddison, K.-S. Schulz, WP Maddison: The Tree of Life Web Project . Pp. 19-40 in: Z.-Q. Zhang, WA Shear (Ed.): Linnaeus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy . Zootaxa 1668: 1-766. 2007. Open Access: Abstract (PDF; 20 KB), complete article (PDF; 830 KB)
Web links
- Tree of Life Web Project (English)
- Relationship with the Encyclopedia of Life (English)