~ 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.

Created by Werner Haberl, this scholarly hub is dedicated entirely to the biology of shrews (Soricidae), featuring a bibliography, photo gallery, newsletter, congress announcements, and a forum for zoologists worldwide. Awarded 'Coolest Science Site' in 1996 and mentioned in BBC Wildlife Magazine and Encyclopedia Britannica Online, it remains a remarkably deep and specialized resource for both researchers and curious naturalists.

Created by Dr. John Hilty, Illinois Wildflowers is a comprehensive botanical reference covering prairie, woodland, wetland, savanna, and weedy wildflowers native to Illinois, complete with plant-feeding and flower-visiting insect databases. The site's depth is remarkable, extending beyond flora to include vertebrate animal interactions, botanical and ecological terminology, and detailed photo documentation built over nearly two decades.

The Amur Bird Project documents bird research and conservation efforts in Russia's Amur region and Siberia, with detailed field reports on catching, tagging, and tracking species like Bluethroats with geolocators. Run by a team of researchers including Wieland Heim and collaborators, it offers a rare window into ornithological fieldwork in some of the world's most remote wetland habitats.

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.

A digitized 1922 educational text by Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the American Tree Association, covering all aspects of forestry from how trees grow to national forest policy and the dangers of fire and disease. Hosted on Project Gutenberg, this freely available ebook spans 18 chapters and includes period photographs of forests, rangers, and fire damage, making it a fascinating historical resource on early American conservation thought.

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.

Wild Harvests is T. Abe Lloyd's foraging blog focused on wild food experiments and plant identification in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Northwest Washington and Southern Vancouver Island. Posts cover edible plants like bulrush and beach pea, wetland ecology field courses, and hands-on accounts from decades of regional botanical study.

Rachel Sussman's project documenting the oldest living organisms on Earth, from ancient chestnut trees to Siberian actinobacteria, combines scientific curiosity with fine art photography. Each post chronicles her travels to find and photograph these extraordinary subjects, paired with reflections on deep time, survival, and the nature of life itself.

The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria is a collaborative portal uniting 60 regional herbaria across Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and the Yukon, offering access to over 3.6 million plant specimen records and nearly 1.8 million images. Researchers and naturalists can search the database by label data or geographic location, download datasets for offline use, and consult a fully annotated checklist of vascular plants native to the Pacific Northwest.