Research and Course Guides: +Biology Resources: Researching Species

Linnaeus' Classification of Species

These databases are the ones you should use to start your search for research articles.

BioOne This link opens in a new window
BioOne provides full-text access to both current and archival "bioscience research journals, featuring timely content on a wide-array of today’s most pressing topics, including global warming, stem cell research, ecological and biodiversity conservation."
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Elsevier published journals and books online platform
PubMed This link opens in a new window
The National Library of Medicine's openly searchable and highly comprehensive database of biomedical literature, providing citations from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
American Society for Microbiology Journals This link opens in a new window
A collection of 14 full-text journals published by the American Society for Microbiology, delivering up-to-date and authoritative coverage of both basic and clinical microbiology.
Science Reference Source This link opens in a new window
Easy access to full-text science content including encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, websites, pictures, illustrations, audio clips, and video clips.

Animal Diversity Web
Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan.
Encyclopedia of Life
a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world.[2] It aims to build one "infinitely expandable" page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text.
Life Sciences Dictionary
Online life sciences dictionary, glossary and terms directory.
Animal Genome Size Database
A comprehensive catalogue of animal genome size data. Haploid DNA contents (C-values, in picograms) are currently available for 4972 species (3231 vertebrates and 1741 non-vertebrates) based on 6518 records from 669 published sources.

Good things to do before getting started:

Play the Name Game: know all of the names your species is known by (e.g. a barrel-eye fish is also known as "Macropinna microstoma," "spook fish," and sometimes is referred to just by its family name of "opisthoproctidae.")
Find a Family Tree: be clear on the classification of your species (where it is on its family tree) - this can eliminate a lot of confusion later down the road, and help you with determining how to search
Housekeeping: get set up on RefWorks so you can be sure to save what you are finding for future referrals

Environmental Factors

Habitat(s)

Biological Factors

Functionality of Internal Systems

Adaptation