Open Species Database Breaks Half-Million Mark

ferienhausversicherung writes "Biologists estimate that about 1.75 million species, from bacteria to blue whales, have already been identified on Earth. But there may be anywhere between 3 million and 12 million more yet to be discovered. An online catalogue of all known life on Earth now has half a million species in its freely available database. Another promising effort is Wikispecies. Started in August 2004, this is an offshoot of the Wikimedia group, whose free online encyclopaedia is constructed by users themselves." (And Wikipedia itself is about to publish its 500,000th English entry -- if you hurry, perhaps it will be yours.)

Comments

Wikispecies seems a bad idea

[Smilin]

Is is just me or does this seem a really bad idea? With Wikipedia you know what you are getting. The information is most likly correct but you'll take it with a grain of salt just to be sure. You don't really go there when doing research right?

With Wikispecies it's information that is scientific in nature and accuracy becomes paramount.

How long until everyone settles on the truly accurate definition of the Basselope? How about the purple-headed trowser snake?

Bad idea I say.