~ Early Web Links ~

Stern's Splendors of the Rain Forest is a richly illustrated site dedicated to tropical plants, focusing on orchids, bromeliads, tillandsias, cacti, and succulents native to the Americas. Featuring exotic photo galleries, cultural guides, and links to major plant societies worldwide, it serves as an enthusiast's showcase for rain forest horticulture.

Bert Hubert's long-running article explains DNA biology through the lens of a computer programmer, drawing analogies between genetic code and software concepts like error correction, compression, and the halting problem. Originally written in 2001 and revised multiple times since, it became popular enough to spawn a two-hour conference presentation and an upcoming book.

The Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) is a U.S. Forest Service database providing detailed scientific syntheses on fire ecology, fire regimes, and the effects of fire on plant and animal species across the United States. Visitors can explore species profiles, vegetation crosswalks, tree distribution maps, and research publications covering ecosystems from ponderosa pine forests to Sonoran desert scrub communities.

Created by ichthyologist M.K. Oliver, this comprehensive reference site documents every cichlid fish species found in Lake Malawi, Africa, with scientifically accurate descriptions, photographs, and taxonomic data going back to 1997. Visitors can browse species alphabetically, by color pattern, or through picture galleries, and also find FAQs, a quiz, trophic adaptation guides, a bibliography, and maps covering this remarkable rift lake ecosystem.

The Cincinnati Dry Dredgers claim the title of the oldest continuously-operating fossil club in North America, bringing together amateur geologists and fossil collectors in the Cincinnati area since their founding. The site features extensive fossil identification guides for trilobites, crinoids, echinoderms, brachiopods, and more, plus field trip photos, member activities, and resources for finding Ordovician-era fossils in the region.

Curated by the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division, this digital archive spans 1890 to 1961 and brings together photographs, documents, and original materials tracing the history of salmon fishing and the roots of the Pacific Northwest salmon crisis. Visitors can browse topics ranging from Native American fishing practices and salmon canneries to hatcheries and the Columbia River salmon industry.

Peter Alfrey's birding notebook chronicles his passionate pursuit of birds across the UK and beyond, with detailed field accounts of species sightings, migration events, and twitches at sites like Beddington Farmlands and the Azores. The blog spans years of dated posts and connects to related projects including an eBird profile, a Black Sea observatory project, and pelagic birding trips.

Created by David Ulansey, this long-running reference site compiles hundreds of links to authoritative scientific reports documenting the ongoing sixth mass extinction and global biodiversity crisis. Active since 1998 and last updated in 2021, it covers species loss across vertebrates, insects, plants, and freshwater animals, drawing on sources like the IUCN, UN, WWF, and major scientific journals.

The TalkOrigins Archive is a comprehensive collection of articles, essays, and FAQs dedicated to presenting mainstream scientific responses to creationism, intelligent design, and evolution denial. Drawing from the long-running talk.origins Usenet newsgroup, it covers topics ranging from evolutionary biology and geology to abiogenesis, cosmology, and the age of the Earth.

Science Workshop appears to be a science-oriented site, though its content is extremely minimal with only a single image visible at crawl time. The domain name suggests a focus on science education or hands-on scientific topics, but without further content the site's exact subject remains uncertain.