IRMNG search

The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) project, sponsored initially by OBIS Australia as a contribution to the international OBIS system, attempts to collate many taxonomic compilations - primarily at genus level, but also species lists as available - into a common, harmonised framework and then build informatics tools (such as fuzzy matching and integrated web queries) on top of the resulting dataset. IRMNG covers all taxonomic groups i.e. animals, plants, fungi, protists, prokaryotes and bacteria, both extant and fossil, and additionally aims to provide marine vs. nonmarine, and extant vs. fossil, "flags" or attributes for most names held. The taxonomic status of names is also of interest (i.e. whether a name is currently considered valid [accepted] or a synonym), and this information is held for many of the 465,000+ genus names and almost all of the 1.6 million species names currently included.

Initial sources utilised for IRMNG include the Nomenclator Zoologicus compilation of zoological genus names (1758-2004), the Index Nominum Genericorum compilation of botanical names (sensu lato), the Catalogue of Life compilation of species names (2006 version, to be updated in due course) and a range of others including both databases and print works. Frequently the required information on a given name is required to be assembled from multiple spurces, for example Nomenclator Zoologicus gives names but not families or taxonomic status, Index Nominum Genericorum gives names and families (which may have subsequently changed) but not taxonomic status, and so on.

Contributors to this project to date include Tony Rees (CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research), Nicolas Bailly and Deng Palomares (FishBase and SeaLifeBase projects), Sheila Brands (Systema Naturae 2000 / Taxonomicon project), Dennis Gordon and Don Robertson (New Zealand SP2k project), Gary Poore, Robin Wilson and Ely Wallis (Museum Victoria), Helen Morgan and Anna Povey (Bushways Australia), Edward Vanden Berghe (Flanders Marine Institute), and Ellen Farr (Smithsonian Institution). Extensive use has also been made of information from Joel Hallan's impressive Biology Catalog. The project has also been assisted by two small grants from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and support from the Atlas of Living Australia. For additional status information including further offers of potential assistance, please contact Tony.Rees@csiro.au ; additional information on this project is also available via the TDWG "Biodiversity Information Projects of the World" database at http://www.tdwg.org/biodiv-projects/projects-database/view-project/1527/ .

Click here to go to the IRMNG search entry point . IRMNG genus lists by taxonomic group (e.g. phylum, class, etc.) can also be accessed via the links labelled "IRMNG genera list - group XXX" from the CMAR Biodiversity Resources page.

A recent (Mar 2012) brief presentation on IRMNG, presented to the Global Names workshop "sharing names and taxonomies" in Hawaii, is available here. For a more extensive (2011) presentation on IRMNG, see the presentation "Towards a Hierarchical Classification of All Life" available on the Encyclopedia of Life website here.

An IRMNG FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is also available here.