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Integrated Taxonomic Information System

 
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Integrated Taxonomic Information System
 
 
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The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy
Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
 of biological species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagency group within the U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 federal government, involving agencies from the Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce

The United States Department of Commerce is the United States Cabinet department of the United States Federal government of the United States concerned with promoting economic growth....
 to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its Financial endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine....
. It has now become an international body, with Canadian
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 and Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 government agencies participating.






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The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy
Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
 of biological species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagency group within the U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 federal government, involving agencies from the Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce

The United States Department of Commerce is the United States Cabinet department of the United States Federal government of the United States concerned with promoting economic growth....
 to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its Financial endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine....
. It has now become an international body, with Canadian
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 and Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 government agencies participating. The primary focus of ITIS is North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n species, but many groups are worldwide and ITIS continues to collaborate with other international agencies to increase its global coverage.

Reference database

ITIS provides an automated reference database
Database

A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model....
 of scientific and common names for species. As of January 2009, it contains over 592,000 scientific names, synonyms, and common names for terrestrial, marine, and freshwater taxa from all biological kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, and microbes). While the system does focus on North American species, it also includes many species not found in North America, especially among birds, fishes, amphibians, mammals, many reptiles, and several invertebrate animal groups. Data presented in ITIS are considered public information, and may be freely distributed and copied, though appropriate citation is requested. ITIS is frequently used as the de facto source of taxonomic data in biodiversity informatics projects.

ITIS couples each scientific name with a stable and unique taxonomic serial number TSN as the "common denominator" for accessing information on such issues as invasive species, declining amphibians, migratory birds, fishery stocks, pollinators, agricultural pests, and emerging diseases. It presents the names in a standard classification that contains author, date, distributional, and bibliographic information related to the names. In addition, common names are available through ITIS in the major official languages of the Americas (English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, and Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
).

Catalogue of life

ITIS and its international partner, Species 2000, cooperate to annually produce the Catalogue of Life
Catalogue of Life

The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species....
, a checklist and index of the world’s species. The Catalogue of Life
Catalogue of Life

The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species....
 goal is to complete the global checklist of 1.8 million species by 2011. As of April 2008, the Catalogue of Life
Catalogue of Life

The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species....
 has reached 1.1 million species—a major milestone in its quest to complete the first up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms.

ITIS and the Catalogue of Life
Catalogue of Life

The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species....
 are core to the Encyclopedia of Life
Encyclopedia of Life

Encyclopedia of Life is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.8 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world....
 initiative announced May 2007. EOL will be built largely on various Creative Commons
Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creativity works available for others to build upon legally and to share....
 licenses

Legacy database

Of the 483,000+ (January 2009) scientific names in the current database, approximately 210,000 were inherited from the database formerly maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center
National Oceanographic Data Center

The National Oceanographic Data Center manages the acquisition, ingest processing, quality control and long-term preservation of oceanography data....
 (NODC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the Earth's atmosphere....
 (NOAA). The newer material has been checked to higher standards of taxonomic credibility, and over half of the original material has been checked and improved to the same standard.

Standards

Biological taxonomy is not fixed, and opinions about the correct status of taxa at all levels, and their correct placement, are constantly revised as a result of new research. Many aspects of classification will always remain a matter of scientific judgment. The ITIS database is updated to take account of new research as it becomes available, and the information it yields is likely to represent a fair consensus of modern taxonomic opinion.

Records within ITIS include information about how far it has been possible to check and verify them. Its information should be checked against other sources where these are available, and against the primary research scientific literature
Scientific literature

Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural science and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature....
 where possible.

Member agencies

  • United States Department of Agriculture
    United States Department of Agriculture

    The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive departments responsible for developing and executing Federal government of the United States policy on farming, agriculture, and food....
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the Earth's atmosphere....
  • United States Geological Survey
    United States Geological Survey

    The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it....
  • Smithsonian Institution
    Smithsonian Institution

    The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its Financial endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine....
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency
    United States Environmental Protection Agency

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an List of United States federal agencies of the federal government of the United States charged to Regulation of chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land....
  • National Biological Information Infrastructure
    National Biological Information Infrastructure

    The National Biological Information Infrastructure is a program coordinated by the United States Geological Survey's Biological Informatics Office within the USGS Biological Resources Discipline....
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

    The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, also referred to as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , is the Ministry of the government of Canada with responsibility for policies governing agriculture production, farming income, research and New product development, inspection, and the regulation of animals and plants....
  • NatureServe
    NatureServe

    NatureServe is a non-profit environmental conservation organization. It was established in 1999 as an umbrella organization for a network of natural heritage programs or conservation data centers that had been set up by The Nature Conservancy....
  • National Park Service
    National Park Service

    The National Park Service is the List of United States federal agencies that manages all List of areas in the United States National Park System, many U.S....
  • Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad
    Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad

    The Comisi?n Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad is a permanent inter-ministerial commission of the Mexican government. Established in 1992, CONABIO has the primary purpose of coordinating, supporting and executing activities and projects designed to foment understanding of biodiversity within Mexico and the Middle Americ...
     (CONABIO)


See also

  • Catalogue of life
    Catalogue of Life

    The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species....
  • Encyclopedia of Life
    Encyclopedia of Life

    Encyclopedia of Life is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.8 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world....
  • Wikispecies
    Wikispecies

    Wikispecies is a wiki-based online project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation that aims to create a comprehensive free content catalogue of all species....


External links