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The World List is a searchable catalogue of species and higher taxa names.
For each sponge species or infraspecific taxon, accepted or not, there are (going to be) the following entries:
- genus name
- the subgenus name
- the species name
- the infraspecific name, if applicable
- the author and year of the species name, without or with brackets depending on whether it is the original combination or not
- The AphiaID (a unique numerical database identifier)
- The affiliation/classification (according to the Systema Porifera)
- The status as ‘accepted’ or ‘unaccepted’ (if applicable; junior synonymy is usually based on published revision)
- Record status (indicates who checked the record)
- Rank of taxon, e.g. species
- Parent: immediately higher taxon, e.g. genus, to which the present taxon belongs
- Synonymized taxa: the list of junior synonyms linked to the present name
- Sources: usually the reference to the original description and if applicable to a recent revision (as the basis of the record), e.g. the relevant chapter of the Systema Porifera. Additional important sources may also be given
- Child taxa: all immediate subordinate taxa, e.g. subspecies or varieties
- Environment: marine, freshwater, or brackish
- Fossil range: recent only or also known as fossil
- Distribution: indication of the geographic distribution of the taxon, at least based on the origin of the holotype
- Specimen: type specimen information, or published specimen information
- Note: any further relevant information, including descriptions
- Image: photos or other images uploaded to the site
- Edit history: date of entry and changes made, name of editor
- Links to a Taxonomic tree, Google, Google Scholar and Google images.
The records on higher taxa generally have the same structure as those of the species records. Not all of the above items already exist for all taxa entered in the WPD, but we are working hard to complete it.
What you can do with this database at this moment in time (2008) is find out what the currently accepted combination is of your subject sponge, what its currently accepted higher taxon affiliation is, and from where it was originally described. What you cannot (yet) do is find every published combination of genus and species name, as we gave priority so far to the original and the currently accepted combinations (so non-original non-accepted combinations are frequently still lacking). What you also cannot do reliably is trace the distributions of species and higher taxa or extract regional lists of species, because only the localities of the holotypes have been indicated.
To assist the beginner or the non-specialist we provide here a selection of links to sponge websites, treating biology and systematics of this oldest of the metazoan phyla.
Overview of the Sponges:
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