NOTE: part of the following list of links can be found in more details in this publication: Prendini L., Hanner R. and R. Desalle. 2002. Obtaining, Storing and Archiving Specimens and Tissue Samples for Use in Molecular Studies. In Techniques in Molecular Systematics and Evolution (MTBM), R. Desalle, G. Giribet and W. Wheeler (Eds.). Birkhauser Verlag. Basel.

Frozen Tissue Collections

• *This list is by no mean exhaustive, but offers a starting point for searches on Frozen Tissue collections (Herbaria not included) in academic institutions accessible through the web*

  • Humbold State University: http://www.humboldt.edu/~bsa2/collection.html#tissues
  • Louisiana State University: http://www.museum.lsu.edu/LSUMNS/Museum/NatSci/tissues.html
  • Museum of Southwestern Biology: http://nix.msb.unm.edu/test/queryform.php
  • Museum of the North, Alaska: http://www.uaf.edu/museum/af/
  • Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley: http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/mvz/collections/TissueCollection.html
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: http://www.mnh.si.edu/rc/
  • South Australian Museum: http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/orig/ebu.htm
  • Texas A&M: http://wfscnet.tamu.edu/tcwc/tissue_collection.htm
  • The Field Museum, Chicago: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/default.htm
  • The Natural History Museum, London: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/zoology/zoocollect.html

• University of Washington, Burke: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/tissuepolicy.html

Natural History Museums

• The National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.
  

• The Natural History Museum, London, UK.

• Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

• Field Museum, Chicago

• Missouri Botanic Museum
  

• Australian Museum
  

• Paris Natural History Museum
  

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK)
  

• Berlin Botanic Garden
  

Natural History Societies

• Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC)
  

• The Systematics Association, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
  

• The Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA
  

• Center for Biosystematics, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
  

• Virtual Library Museums Pages: Directory of Online Museums
  

• UCMP lists of Natural History Collections, Societies and Organisations, the Museum of Paleontology, University of California (UCMP), Berkeley, CA, USA
  

• Natural History Museums and Collections
  

• Biological Museums on the Web, The Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA
  
• Insects and Entomological Resources, hosted by Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH, USA
  

• Polar Museums Directory, The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), University of Cambridge, UK
  

• Botanical Museums, Herbaria, Natural History Museums on the Internet Directory for Botany (IDB), University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
  

Museum Databases

• The Worldwide Museum Database of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
• The Virtual Library Museums around the World page
• The Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley Databases for Museums of Natural History and Libraries

Biodiversity and Biological Collections Database Software

• Freezerworks, Dataworks Development, Inc., Mountlake Terrace, WA, USA

• Digital Taxonomy, An Information Resource on Biodiversity Data Management
  

• BIOLINK, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  

• BIOTA: The Biodiversity Database Manager, Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA, USA
  

• DELTA
  

• MUSE and Specify, Biodiversity Research Center, Lawrence, KS, USA: http://biodiversity.bio.uno.edu/muse

• Platypus, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  

General Taxonomy Links

General taxonomy


• NCBI
• The Tree of Life Project
• BIOSIS (Offers Links to all kind of taxonomy database by taxonomic names)
• ITIS Integrated Taxonomic Information System

  Mammalogy

• Mammals of the World Online

  Entomology
  

• Entomology databases links
• AMNH Invertebrate Zoology Type Specimens Database

Drosophilae


• International Drosophila Database
• FlyBase or Drosophila Resource Network
• Flybase anatomy drawings
• Berkeley Drosophila Database Project

Herpetology


Amphibians:

• AMNH Amphibian database

  Reptiles:

• The EMB Reptile Database

Ichthyology



• FishBase
• University of Texas Ichthyology Collection
• Natural History of Vertebrates Lab Emporia State University

Genome Links

• NCBI Complete Microbial Genomes

• TIGR Comprehensive Microbial Resource

• PIR Complete Genomes

• MAGPIE

• PEDANT

• GOLD[TM]: Genomes OnLine Database

• MBGD - Comparative Microbial Genome Database

• COG - Clusters of Orthologous Groups

• The Phylogeny Wing

• The Ribosomal Database Project (for rRNA derived phylogenetic trees)

Permits and Regulations

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA), Dangerous Goods Online
  

• To order IATA publications: Dangerous Goods Regulation
• IATA Site Index
  

• Import-export regulations for selected countries, Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server
  

• Treaty Database, American Society of International Law (ASIL), Wildlife Interest Group, Burlingame, CA, USA
  

• Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, USA
  

• Permits for collecting and exporting samples from Australia
  

• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), collecting permits for Costa Rica
  

• European Union environmental legislation
  

• Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO), collecting permits for Mexico

• To obtain current listings of endangered and threatened species, and federal permits for the US: US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), International Affairs, Arlington, VA
  

• To find out about quarantine requirements in shipping to the US, see the US Department of Agriculture (USDA):

1. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Hyattsville, MD
2. USDA APHIS import-export directory
3. Veterinary Services, National Center for Import and Export (NCIE)
4. USDA, APHIS, Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ)

• US Customs Service, Washington, DC, Importing and Exporting
  

• To determine if the sample from a vertebrate is disease-free: National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI, USA
  

• To determine whether importation to the US requires special permits because of disease risks: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA
  

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Nepean, ON, Canada
  

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
  

• TRAFFIC, Cambridge, UK
  

• World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Washington, DC, USA
  

• The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland
  

• To join the permits listserver: Email listserv@sivm.si.edu. No subject is required. In the body of the message, issue the command: Subscribe PERMIT-L Firstname Surname
  

Glossaries, Biological and Medical Resources

• Biosis, This index to selected quality Internet resources offers access to an immense range of zoological information. Choose to browse by subject or by animal name/group. Type in your own search terms; or use one of the selected short-cuts
  

• Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server Resources

• Genome Glossary from the Human Genome Project
  

• Genomics Glossary from CHI
  

• Life Science Dictionary from BioTech
  

• Glossary of Genetic Terms from NIH
  

• Glossary from CancerPage.com
  

• Bioremediation Glossary from NABIR
  

• Biology Resources from ORNL
  

• Multilingual Medical Terms
  

Molecular Biology Web sites, Products and Services

• Molecular Biology Techniques Forum and Molecular Biology Resources, hosted by the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Department of Commerce, Seattle, WA, USA
  

• Molecular Biology Databases on the Internet, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
  

• BioLinks, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

• BioTechniques, Eaton Publishing Co., Natick, MA, USA
  

• Qiagen