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Welcome to Wikispecies The free species directory that anyone can edit. It covers Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista and all other forms of life. So far we have 434,684 articles Wikispecies is free, because life is in the public domain!

Taxon Navigation Superregnum Archaea Superregnum Bacteria Superregnum Eukaryota Regnum Protista Regnum Fungi Regnum Plantae Regnum Animalia Virus (classification still unclear)

Fundulus grandis	Gambierdiscus toxicus	Linckia laevigata	Taractrocera maevius	Cheirolophus crassifolius

Explore Wikispecies HELP Section – Detailed information on creating pages. Taxonomy – Information on the Linnaean classification of species. Village Pump – Discuss the project. Done and To Do – See references to very detailed areas and defined future targets Wikispecies FAQ – Check replies to common concerns. Image Guidelines – Our recommendation on where to upload illustrations Wikispecies PR – Help us by spreading the word of Wikispecies Collaboration with ZooKeys A collaboration between Wikispecies and ZooKeys has been announced. PhytoKeys also joined the collaboration in November 2010. Images of species from ZooKeys and PhytoKeys will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and used in Wikispecies. Distinguished Author José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage   (1823–1907). A Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon. His work at the Museum consisted in acquiring, describing and coordinating collections, many of which arrived from the Portuguese colonies in Africa, such as Angola, Mozambique, etc. He published more than 200 taxonomic papers on mammals, birds, and fishes. In the 1880s he became the Minister of the Navy and later the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Portugal. The zoology collection at the Lisbon Museum is called the Bocage Museum in his honor. He was responsible for identifying many new species, which he named according to the naturalist who found them.

Species of the Month Common Seal Phoca vitulina, Heligoland, Germany Vernacular name: Common Seal, also know as Harbour Seal Length: 140 cm (female) – 170 cm (male) Weight: 100 kg – 150 kg Habitat: Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Northern Hemisphere Conservation status: Least Concern First described: by Linnaeus in 1758 The Common Seal is an earless seal in the family Phocidae, found along temperate and arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of the Pinnipedia (walruses, eared seals, and true seals), they are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Baltic and North Seas. Among the "big five" of the northwest European Wadden Sea the Common Seal doubtless is the eyecatcher. The other four larger animals of the region are the Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus, the Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena, the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, and the European Sea Sturgeon Acipenser sturio. See also: Species of previous months

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