List of every known species online
The Encyclopaedia of Life, run by a secretariat based at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, will have pages on all of the estimated 1.8 million species on the planet when completed. It will include photographs and maps and information such as distribution, behaviour and endangered status.
Some of the species already documented include the American burying beetle, the giant helicopter damsel fly and the peregrine falcon, as well as the humble potato and tomato. By the time the encyclopaedia is completed in 2017, it will draw together the knowledge of the world’s wildlife that scientists have discovered over the past 250 years.
