The Animal Information Database is an educational Web site from SeaWorld/Busch Gardens. The site contains a wide variety of information about many animals including fun facts, biological classification, habitat, and news about specific animals at the Sea World/Busch Gardens parks. A fun part of the site is the Animal Sounds Library where visitors can listen to the interesting sounds made by a...

With this Web site, users may access free resources based on the nationally ranked collections of the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. Over 5 million specimens are to be found in four areas: anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology. Online resources linked to the zoology collections include a guide to the herpetofauna of Washington, two mammals databases, and a fun section on spider...

The spring season marks the long-awaited arrival of the Magicicada Brood X periodical cicadas. The Magicicada cicadas are emerging in great numbers after spending 17 years underground. The following websites offer information about the periodical cicadas, and other cicadas as well. The first (1) site, from the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology, provides a variety of short information...

The following Web sites offer a quick tour of some of the planet's outsized inhabitants, from the relatively large (e.g. giant cave cockroach) to the just plain enormous (e.g. blue whale). The first Web site (1) is an Animal Planet Feature where visitors can meet giants of the past -- such as the giant komodo dragon and the giant sloth, and some of their smaller, modern-day cousins. The site...

Located at Harvard University, the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) "insect type collection, one of the largest in North America, currently preserves the primary types of more than 28,000 species, representing 29 orders, 565 families, and 7, 578 genera." This database makes records from the MCZ insect type collection available to Internet users. Records include high resolution images, Type...

Animals have been a furtive ground of exploration for artists for millennia, and they have been represented elegantly in painting, sculpture, and photographs, to name just a few of the most popular media used in their depiction. This novel online collection from the California Institute of Technology features dozens of animals in a whole new light: Infrared. Recently, a team of researchers took...

Nine of the world's 29 orders of mammals are found in the state of Washington, including bats, primates, rodents, marine mammals, and carnivores, among other groups. For a plethora of information on mammals in Washington state and beyond, check out this Webpage from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (University of Washington-Seattle). In the Mammals of Washington section of the...

Hosted by Madrid's National Museum of Natural Sciences, this website features Fauna Iberica, a scientific research project, under the directorship of Dr. Maria Angeles Ramos Sanchez. The museum features "the zoological biodiversity of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands." The website links to information about the history, objectives, organization, and current progress of the project....

The University of California Museum of Paleontology's Web site includes this section on the phylogenetic relationships that connect diverse life forms. The highlight of the site is the online exhibit The Phylogeny of Life, which contains many great images and photos to enhance the text. Without a specific navigational path, visitors can view the information in what ever pattern and level of detail...

The California Academy of Sciences (last mentioned in the July 5, 2002 Scout Report), offers this well-designed and comprehensive Web site about skulls. Visitors will learn about skull structure and function, skull diversity, the living tissue associated with bones, and the role of the academy's skull collection in scientific research. This Web site is made especially appealing by its liberal use...