~ Early Web Links ~

Brian W. Coad, a retired ichthyologist from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, shares decades of expertise through resources including a Dictionary of Ichthyology, annotated checklists of Canadian fishes, and detailed studies of freshwater fishes from Iran and Iraq. The site is a remarkable reference collection for anyone interested in fish taxonomy, zoogeography, and biodiversity, with content serious enough to be published as academic papers and books.

Don Freiday's nature blog blends wildlife photography, birding observations, and philosophical reflections from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and beyond. With over 3,000 posts and a career spanning competitive birding events across Texas, Israel, and the U.S., Freiday brings genuine expertise and a naturalist's eye to every entry.

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.

Built by a librarian and PhD student researching the cultural history of dinosaurs in children's media, Terrible Lizard blends academic bibliography, subject guides, and curated open-access resources in the spirit of old-school faculty homepages. Visitors will find ecohorror reading lists, dinosaur-related databases, language resources, and topic shrines organized with a librarian's careful hand.

Developed by CSIRO Entomology researchers, this anatomical atlas provides detailed visual and educational reference material covering the morphology of flies (Diptera), originally built in Flash and converted to HTML in 2023. A collaboration between CSIRO and ABRS, it includes identification keys and anatomical glossaries for fly families found in Australia, making it a valuable tool for entomologists and biology students alike.

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.

Operation RubyThroat is a comprehensive hummingbird research and education project run by Bill Hilton Jr. and the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in South Carolina. The site covers everything from attracting hummingbirds with feeders to scientific banding studies and student citizen-science projects, making it a rich hub for both casual enthusiasts and educators.

Michael Lueth's extensive photographic flora documents mosses, liverworts, and other bryophytes across Europe and beyond, with photo diaries from dozens of field excursions spanning from Svalbard to Madeira. The site features hundreds of species-level plant photographs organized by location and expedition, making it a remarkable visual reference for bryophyte enthusiasts and botanists alike.

Virginia Tech's Dendrology and Forest Biology site is a comprehensive academic resource for tree identification, featuring factsheets, ID keys, a vTree app, and databases covering superlative and remarkable trees. Built by Dr. John Seiler, John Peterson, and collaborators, it serves as a go-to reference for students, landowners, and naturalists interested in woody plants across North America.

Diptera.info is a comprehensive portal dedicated to the insect order Diptera, covering flies, midges, and gnats with galleries, checklists, catalogues, and an active identification forum for researchers and enthusiasts worldwide. With over 5,000 members, a larva gallery, downloadable articles, and curated web links to scientific collections and catalogues, it serves as a serious reference hub for dipterists at all levels.