Biodiversity Information Projects of the World

All Catfish Species Home

Project Website

http://silurus.acnatsci.org

Project Description

An All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) is proposed as Phase I of a long- term PBI of the Otophysi, the largest clade of freshwater fishes. The inventory is expected to result in the discovery and description of up to 1,750 new species of catfishes and, ultimately, in the description of between 2,300 and 4,600 new species of freshwater fishes. It will result in the completed taxonomy of a globally diverse taxon, Siluriformes, and later in the completed taxonomy of Otophysi, the clade containing over two-thirds of all freshwater fishes.


Products of ACSI will include a completed taxonomy of catfishes with up-to-date identification guides, atlases, catalogues and checklists of species, phylogenetic studies of higher-level relationships among catfishes and an improved predictive classification, large samples of freshwater fishes from poorly collected regions added to permanent collections in U.S. and foreign institutions, and enhanced international communication among fish taxonomists. The project's website and electronic mail listserver will continue after the grant period for dissemination of ACSI data and products, and provide for communication among taxonomists about research, educational and outreach opportunities.

ACSI will be authoritative and rapid because it concerns organisms of immediate interest to its many participants. Further, ACSI will set the stage for the continuing inventory of other otophysans with an established international network of senior and newly trained systematists, new and well documented museum collections, identification of gaps in the global freshwater survey, and the framework for documentation, analysis and delivery of large amounts of information on specimens, taxonomy, phylogeny and freshwater biodiversity.

Contact

Larry M. Page
Principal Investigator
Florida Museum of Natural History

Project Type

Data Aggregator

Project Language

English

Key Inputs

Funded by National Science Foundation

Key Infrastructure

Web site, research, taxonomic identification

Key Technologies

HTML

Key Processes

Funding, supporting research, linking research

Geographic Scope

Global - Global

Taxonomic Scope

Order - Siluriformes

Comments

Record Status

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