Dr. Norman Platnick currently heads the largest and most coordinated research project ever launched on spiders, a Planetary Biodiversity Inventory of the goblin spiders (family Oonopidae). The project currently involves 45 investigators in 10 countries; these workers are collaboratin via an innovative, Internet-accessible database that records and manages all our observations and images of specimens. The project began with an award from the U.S. National Science Foundation late in 2006, but over 25% of our total budget is now coming from other sources, in several countries. Many of the participants are trainees (including 5 postdoctoral fellows, 5 Ph.D. students, and 5 M.S. students).

 

Curatorial Responsibility: Araneae

Scientific Assistants: Louis Sorkin, Nadine Dupérré