DailyDirt: Biological Taxonomy 2.0
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Classifying every kind of life form isn't an easy task. Technology helps a little bit, but there's no really quick way to scan for lifeforms just yet. Still, there are a bunch of folks out there who are obsessed with tracking and categorizing various animals and plants (and fungi and bacteria and...). Here are some cool projects that are working on identifying biodiversity from all over the world.- The International Barcode of Life (iBOL) project aims to create a DNA-based reference library for all multi-cellular life on Earth. It's a fairly ambitious project, but at least they're not trying to look for extra-terrestrial life, too... [url]
- The Encyclopedia of Life project is like a Wikipedia just for biological organisms. A web page for every species, and a car in every garage? [url]
- A barcode-like system called Stripespotter is cataloging zebra stripes so that field researchers can track the zebras they've already photographed. The system could also potentially be used for other animals with unique fur patterns -- like tigers, giraffes or your pets. [url]
- Endangered sharks are being tracked by their DNA -- which can be used to tell where these sharks grew up geographically due to their mating behavior. Sharks don't need iPhones in order for people to track them, but they do need freakin' lasers on their heads already. [url]
- To discover more interesting biology-related stuff, check out what's currently running around on StumbleUpon. [url]
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Filed Under: biodiversity, dna barcode, shark, stripespotter, zebra
Companies: encyclopedia of life, international barcode of life, wikipedia
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As for Stripespotter, it's a bad idea. All of the zebras are going to feel like they are being profiled.
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FIRST
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Except there is commonality, and there is commonality. For example, vertebrates have eyes that follow one layout, showing common descent, while invertebrates that have eyes haves ones with wildly differing layouts, showing independent evolution. And the vertebrate eye has misfeatures like placing the nerve and blood-vessel layer in front of the light-sensitive layer, leading to more potential for things to go wrong (just ask any diabetes sufferer who has gone blind). This shows that a) Evolution reinvents similar things multiple times, but b) it shows no ability to learn from experience. In other words, there is no Intelligence in the �Design�. QED.
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I'd put commonality on the side of common ancestor, you monkey.
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Like our government likes to think, it's for their own good. ;)
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GFGB
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