The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) is a project of OBIS Australia designed to assist in the provision of marine species data to OBIS, by permitting the discrimination of marine from nonmarine (and extant from fossil) species records on the basis of the genus name portion of their scientific name (normally, genus + species, or genus + species + infraspecies if applicable). The aim of the project is to (a) assemble as complete a list as possible of the estimated 150,000 extant and 50,000 fossil generic names in current use, plus perhaps 250,000-300,000 synonyms, and (b) flag as many of these as is possible with their marine/nonmarine, and extant/fossil, status. IRMNG also includes a subset of known species names in the world (around 1.4m as at May 2009), with appropriate flags in perhaps 50% of cases.

IRMNG v.1 (January 2008) contained approximately 235,000 genus names and v.2 (April 2009) over 445,000 genera, including all types of biota, both extant and fossil, also incorporating TAXAMATCH fuzzy matching which assists in the real time automated detection of potentially misspelled names.

As well as assisting in the discrimination of potential marine vs. nonmarine, and extant vs. fossil genera and species, IRMNG can also be used to identify current and potential homonyms at genus level, both between and within biological kingdoms and their relevant nomenclatural codes: for example, some 60,000 of the current 445,000 genus names presently in IRMNG are currently duplicated elsewhere in IRMNG holdings, either validly (e.g. Ficus is a valid genus in both plant and animal kingdoms) or invalidly (e.g. multiple instances of Ceratium in both plant and animal kingdoms). IRMNG is endeavouring to assemble authority information wherever possible in association with genus names held, which in combination with the particular genus name allows them to be more easily discriminated in use.

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). 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.

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