The Zoological Record

People write many books about animals. This list keeps track of those books. It is called the Zoological Record.

It started a long time ago. It was first a printed book. Now it is on computers.

This list is very important. It helps us find animal names. It tracks most animal books in the world.

It helps scientists stay up to date. It shows names for many living things. This makes sure everyone uses the same names. It is a great tool for science.

Scientists write many books about animals. The Zoological Record keeps track of them. It is an electronic index. An index is a list that helps you find things. This list tracks about 90% of animal books in the world.

It started in 1864. At first, it was a printed book. A man named Albert Günther helped start it. He worked with the Zoological Society of London. The name changed in 1870. It used to be called The Record of Zoological Literature.

This list helps with names. It is the unofficial register of names in zoology. Zoology is the study of animals. Scientists use this list to find new names. It helps them use the same names for animals.

In the past, there was a three-year lag. This means the list was behind. A new program helped fix this by 1988. Now, the list is electronic. It is published by Clarivate Analytics. You can find old issues online. They are at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Many groups of animals are in the list. These groups are called phyla. The list includes birds and fish. It also includes insects and mammals.

The Zoological Record is a very important tool for scientists. It is an electronic index used to track animal science books. An index is like a giant list that helps people find information. This specific list tracks about 90% of all animal science writing in the world. Because it is so large, it acts as an unofficial register for names. Scientists use it to keep track of the names given to different animals.

This index works by organizing many different types of scientific papers. It tracks many groups of animals, which scientists call phyla. These groups have changed names or categories as science has grown over time. In 1865, the list included groups like Mammalia and Reptilia. By 2007, the list included groups like Protozoa and Echinodermata. The index helps researchers see how these groups are classified. It makes sure that scientific names are easy to find and use.

History shows how much this project has changed since it began. A man named Albert Günther helped start the work in 1864. He worked with the Zoological Society of London and the British Museum. At first, it was a printed book called The Record of Zoological Literature. The name changed to the Zoological Record in 1870. For many years, it was a printed publication. However, the printed version finally stopped in 2016.

Many different groups have helped publish this record over the years. The Zoological Society of London helped at the very beginning. From 1980 to 2004, a group called BIOSIS published it. Then, Thomson Reuters took over from 2004 to 2016. Today, Clarivate Analytics publishes the index in an electronic format. In 1988, a special program helped fix a three-year lag in the data. This program helped the index stay up to date for scientists.

Understanding this index helps you see how science stays organized. Just like a library uses a system to find books, scientists use this index. It helps prevent confusion when people give new names to animals. For example, BIOSIS created the Index to Organism Names to help with this. This database is free and links directly to the Zoological Record. Other big projects like the Catalogue of Life also help organize our world.

The Zoological Record (ZR) is a vital electronic index of zoological literature. It serves as the unofficial register for scientific names in the field of zoology. Because it indexes approximately 90% of the world's zoological literature, it is a primary resource for researchers. Scientists rely on it to track how animals are named and classified. This index ensures that information about the animal kingdom remains organized and accessible to the global scientific community.

To understand how the ZR works, one must look at its role as a bibliographic database. It collects information from a massive variety of scientific papers and publications. The index organizes these entries so that scientists can find specific research quickly. It acts as a central hub for nomenclature, which is the system of naming organisms. While there is no single official repository for all zoological names, the ZR fills this role by tracking new names. This helps prevent confusion when different scientists describe the same animal.

The coverage of the ZR has evolved significantly over time. The index organizes information into different phyla, which are large groups of related animals. As scientific understanding of these groups has grown, the categories have changed. In 1865, the first volumes covered groups such as Mammalia, Reptilia, and Pisces. By 1900, the list included various other groups like Crustacea and Insecta. By 2007, the classification system included groups like Protozoa, Porifera, and Echinodermata. These changes reflect how scientists better understand the relationships between different living things.

The history of the ZR began in 1864. Albert Günther and a group of zoologists started the project. They were associated with the British Museum and the Zoological Society of London. Initially, it was a print publication called The Record of Zoological Literature. The first volume was published in 1865 by John Van Voorst. It was intended to be an English counterpart to a German index called Archiv für Naturgeschichte. The publication avoided the delays often found in the German version.

Financial and competitive challenges shaped its early years. After six volumes, Van Voorst stopped publishing because the work did not make enough profit. Concerned zoologists then formed the Zoological Association to continue the work. They published volumes 7 through 22 between 1870 and 1885 under the name Zoological Record. In 1886, the Zoological Society took over publication duties. In 1900, a competitor called the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature began publishing. This caused the ZR to lose subscribers, even though reviews called the ZR a superior publication. Eventually, the ZR became Section N of that larger catalogue until World War I ended the arrangement.

Modern changes brought the ZR into the digital age. In 1980, the Zoological Society of London joined BIOSIS to co-produce the record. This partnership helped eliminate a three-year lag in the index. They used a "catch up" program that was completed in 1988 to bring the records up to date. In 2001, BIOSIS partnered with Cambridge Scientific Abstracts to create the Zoological Record Plus. Ownership changed several times through acquisitions. Thomson ISI acquired BIOSIS in 2004, and later Thomson Reuters produced the record. Today, Clarivate Analytics publishes the index in an electronic format only.

The ZR is deeply connected to other major biological databases and projects. Because the ZR is so large, it is a key part of the "international notification" process for new names. This was recommended during the development of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature in 1995. To support this, BIOSIS created the Index to Organism Names (ION). ION is a free database that indexes names found in the ZR. Other important systems include the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Catalogue of Life. Web projects like the Tree of Life Web Project also work alongside these professional databases to organize our knowledge of life.