Call it tail envy. With only a vestigial nub to show for ourselves, perhaps it's no wonder that animal tails capture our attention. The following Web sites present some of the more interesting tails to be found in the animal kingdom. The first Web site contains a recent article from Discovery News describing new findings that at least one species of scorpion produces two distinct types of tail...

The Missouri Botanical Garden offers this colorful and appealing Web site about Earth's biomes and aquatic ecosystems. Designed for kids, Biomes of the World offers loads of well-presented information on rainforest, taiga, tundra, desert, temperate deciduous forest, and grassland, as well as freshwater and marine ecosystems. Each biome or ecosystem includes pages of photos and facts covering...

This innovative educational website was created by Elisabeth Benders-Hyde, a science aide at the West Tisbury School in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The site was originally inspired by a biome project developed by West Tisbury 6th grade teachers Ann and Karl Nelson, and incorporates information generated from independent student research. The site offers great information about the world's...

Andrew Carnegie was known for his philanthropy, and in 1895 he contributed his vast wealth to creating 22 various organizations that still bear his name. In 1901 he created what became known as the Carnegie Institution for Science with an initial gift of $10 million. Over the past century, the Institution has continued to support a wide range of scientific endeavors, and researchers such as Edwin...

Since the days when John Muir walked across its campus, there has been a keen interest in the environment at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment keeps this tradition alive through its different projects and publications. Perhaps the best part of the site is the Atlas of the Biosphere, which contains numerous maps documenting...

The Complex Systems Research Center (CSRC) at the University of New Hampshire investigates "the effects of human disturbance on the Earth's biogeochemical processes." Specific emphasis is on the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle, forest decline and land-use change, nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, and processes contributing to changes in atmospheric chemistry and climate. The...

Founded in 1915, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of scientists that is dedicated to several primary goals related to the promotion of ecological science, raising the public's level of awareness of the importance of ecological science, and increasing the resources available for the conduct of ecological science. The website is an indispensable source...

Are you on the lookout for good ecology education resources? Hosted by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the EcoEd Digital Library provides educators with "a forum to contribute and locate peer reviewed ecology education resources that are scientifically sound and pedagogically useful." The website offers nine browsing categories including: Applied ecology, Communities, Ecosystems, Human...

Created by Enchanted Learning, this kid-friendly Biome-Habitats website introduces children to many of the earth's biomes. Although the site provides basic information about many different biomes, the main emphasis is on the animals that live in each habitat. From the homepage, site visitors can link to almost twenty separate biome / habitat sites including Desert, Cave, Savanna, and Coral...

This educational game produced by the Yale Center for Computational Ecology offers a highly interactive and engaging way to get a feel for the complex interrelationships of food webs. In Foodweb Kerplunk, the user plays the part of a town council member in suburban California, trying to protect native chaparral wildlife against the pressures of urban sprawl. Although Foodweb Kerplunk is designed...