Biology 125H - Marine Biology
Web Sites
- General Sites:
- Animal Diversity Site
- Animal Diversity Web is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan. It has thousands of species accounts about individual animal species. On the main page you can refer to the box entitled Browse Kingdom Animalia or enter your search in the search box.
- Aquarium of the Pacific
- The web site of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has information about fishes (bony and cartilaginous), invertebrates, and marine mammals in the Online Learning Center. Click on the Online Learning Center image at the top of the page, then use the Species Browser on the left.
- MarineBio. org
- MarineBio.org provides an online library of scientifically accurate information on the most endangered and most common marine species. Use the species search at the top left of the page or in the middle of the page.
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- The Monterey Bay Aquarium's site has an Online Animal Field Guide. From the home page, point to the Animals & Exhibits tab at the top and click on the Animals & Exhibits link under that. Then click on the Online Animal Field Guide on the right side of the page.
- National Geographic
- This web site from the National Geographic Society contains information on animals, including fish, intertebrates, and mammals. Click on the animals link on the left side of the page.
- 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- This web site from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) allows you to search for endangered species and view information on their taxonomy, history and justification of their endangered status, distribution, etc. It also includes references that allow you to search other web databases for images and species information. After you use the Search function to locate an endangered species, check out the Publications & Links site to locate even more information sources. One of the sources linked to from the IUCN Red List is ARKive.org which has images and additional information.
- Fish Sites:
- ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research: Biology of Sharks and Rays
- The ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research is dedicated to shark and ray conservation through its scientific research and public education programs. There's a search option toward the top right of the screen.
- FishBase
- FishBase is a Global Information System on Fishes. You can search by common or scientific name and locate infomation about its taxonomy, environment, reproduction, etc. FishBase was developed at the WorldFish Center in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and many other partners, and with support from the European Commission.
- Ichthyology at Florida Museum of Natural History
- Sharks are one of the many research interests of the Ichthyology Division at FMNH. This web site is an abundant source of information about sharks, including current shark research, and shark conservation. The biological profiles section of this page contains species profiles on fishes in the museum's image gallery.
- Invertebrate Sites:
- CephBase
- This is a dynamic relational database-driven web site that has been online since 1998. It provides taxonomic data, distribution, images, videos, predator and prey data, size, references and scientific contact information for all living species of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus) in an easy to access, user-friendly manner. Click on Species Search at the top left of the page.
- The Cephalopod Page
- The Cephalopod Page is the personal web page of Dr. James B. Wood and has been online since 1995. Dr. Wood is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. Click on Cephalopod Species in the black banner at the top of the page.
- Mammal Sites:
- The Marine Mammal Center
- Founded in 1975, The Marine Mammal Center is a nonprofit organization that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured, sick and orphaned marine mammals (seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, whales and sea otters) along a 600 mile stretch of California coastline. Click on Learning at the top of the page, select Education, then click on Marine Mammal Info.
Finding Books
Use GCC's Online Catalog to locate books about your specific animal or type of animal. If you do not find a book on your specific species, try broadening your search. For example, if there aren't any books on sea urchins, then try searching for books about invertebrates as shown below.
Subject Headings
The following terms are some examples of subject headings that can be used to locate material about marine animals in the Online Catalog:
- fishes
- invertebrates
- marine mammals
You can also search for the specific animal, such as sea otter, that you are studying.
Reference Books
The GCC Library has various reference books that are useful for locating information on fishes, invertebrates, and marine mammals. Some reference books of interest include:
Fishes:
- Encyclopedia of Fishes
(REF 597.03 E56, 1998) - A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes
(REF 597.0979 E74f, 1983) - Fishes of the World
(REF 597.0012 N427f, 1984)
Invertebrates:
- The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures
(REF 592.097 M514a, 1981) - The Oxford Book of Invertebrates
(REF 592 W549o, 1971) - Invertebrate Zoology
(592 B261i - this is a book that can be checked out)
Marine Mammals:
- Guide to Marine Mammals of the World
(REF 599.5 N277, 2002) - Marine Mammals of Eastern North Pacific and Arctic Waters
(REF 599.09263 M338, 1978)
Article Databases for Locating Magazine and Journal Articles
- Science Resource Center - includes thousands of topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations. In addition, the latest scientific developments are covered in articles from over 200 magazines and academic journals and links to quality web sites.
The Science Resource Center database includes Beacham's Guide to International Endangered Species which includes information on behavior, conservation and recovery, descriptions, distribution, habitat, and threats. This database also includes a Source Citation for your bibliography or references list.
Other databases to consider are:
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online - contains the standard information from the print Encyclopedia Britannica plus media, web sites, and more.
- ProQuest - covers various subject areas and includes full-text articles as well as scholarly articles.
Note on ProQuest - When reviewing your results in ProQuest, you may want to focus on the Scholarly Journals and Magazines. They will provide more in-depth and credible information.
Citing Your Sources
The GCC Library provides some brief, online guides on the MLA and APA citation styles. You can also use the library catalog to search for style manuals, which have more in-depth information. The two most frequently used style manuals for MLA and APA styles are:
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(808.02 G437m, 2003) - Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(808.06615 P976, 2001)
Examples of citations for information on animals found in the web sites and databases above:
"Zalophus californianus/California Sea Lion." MarineBio.org. 20 September 2007 <http://www.marinebio.org/ species.asp?id=50>.
"Killer whale." Online Learning Center. Aquarium of the Pacific. 20 September 2007 <http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/ onlinelearningcenter/species/humpback_whale/>.
"Pacific hagfish." FishBase. 2 May 2007 <http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2512>.
"Enhydra Lutris/Sea Otter." 20 April 2007. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Internatioanal Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 30 April 2007 <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/7750/al>.
"Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris nereis)." Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America. Ed. by Walton Beacham, Frank V. Castronova, and Suzanne Sessine. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Science Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Glendale College Library. 03 May 2007 <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV2644400022>.
Last Updated 9/20/07 blj
