~ Early Web Links ~

Bill Standley's curated directory of internet resources for wildlife ecologists, organized into categories covering federal and state organizations, professional and non-profit groups, universities, and taxa such as mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. The site also indexes resources for endangered species, fisheries, aquatic ecology, jobs, and wildlife-related products like telemetry equipment and optics.

The Lundy Bird Observatory Sightings Archive is a long-running blog documenting bird and wildlife observations from Lundy Island, now preserved as a historical archive after migrating to a new site in late 2023. Years of detailed sighting reports, species updates, and passage records make it a rich resource for birdwatchers and naturalists interested in this unique Atlantic island.

Tim Tyler's essay from the Lotus Artificial Life site takes a critical look at the concept of the 'technological singularity,' arguing that exponential growth curves have no truly singular points and that futurists like Vinge and Kurzweil misuse the term. The piece is a thoughtful, technically grounded rebuttal complete with references to Kurzweil's graphs, Wikipedia, and related essays by other thinkers.

The Kentucky Paleontological Society maintains this hub for fossil enthusiasts in the Bluegrass State, featuring field trip reports, taxonomic fossil photo galleries, and an impressive library of digitized historical geology texts dating back to the 1860s. From Ordovician trilobites to tetrapod trackways, the site covers Kentucky's rich fossil record with resources for both amateur collectors and researchers.

Bugland is a Neocities site dedicated to insects and bugs, presenting a single striking image that hints at a nature-focused personal project. The minimal content suggests an early-stage site built around an enthusiasm for entomology and the tiny creatures of the natural world.

The Freshwater and Marine Image Bank is a University of Washington Libraries digital archive containing over 16,000 historic images of fish, shellfish, marine mammals, fisheries, and aquatic subjects drawn from publications spanning 1735 to 1924. Visitors can browse richly hand-colored illustrations and photographs organized into categories ranging from limnology and aquatic botany to polar exploration and traditional fisheries from around the globe.

A focused educational page from Weber State University exploring the history of mass extinctions, covering all five major extinction events across 600 million years of Earth's history. Complete with graphs, fossil imagery, and detailed descriptions of each extinction's causes and casualties, it makes paleontological science accessible and visually engaging.

Seabean.com is a dedicated reference site exploring the fascinating world of sea-beans and drift seeds, those tropical seeds and fruits that travel ocean currents for thousands of miles before washing ashore. Visitors can learn how sea-beans float, where they originate, and how to identify specific species like Tropical Almond and Hog Plum.

Bogleech is Jonathan Wojcik's long-running labor of love covering creature design reviews, bizarre biology, weird fiction, and year-round Halloween horror since 2001. Visitors will find deep-dive reviews of Pokemon and Digimon monsters, original tabletop RPG content including the Mortasheen bestiary, Halloween finds, and a sprawling archive of creature-focused writing spanning decades.

Grim is an ecology postgrad whose blog covers dirt, death, decay, and the weird wonders of the biological world, from freshwater antibiotic contamination to crustacean ophthalmology. Alongside the science you'll find book reviews, horror movie musings, philosophy, ethology, and hardcore music commentary, making this a refreshingly eclectic corner of the web.