CephBase

CephBase is a dynamic html (dhtml) relational database-driven interactive web site that has been online since 1998. The prototype version of CephBase was developed at Dalhousie Univeristy in Halifax, Canada and was sponsored by the Sloan Foundation following the Workshop on Non-Fish Nekton in Boston, December, 1997. As of 12/2000, CephBase has all the taxa, authorities, and the year the taxa was described online for all of the 703 known living species of cephalopods listed by Sweeney and Roper (1998). CephBase 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.

Information on a particular species can be quickly located by using the search engine; results are listed in table format. Users simply click on a species cephalopod is displayed. Users can also display an alphabetized list of all cephalopod genera. Clicking on a genus leads to a list of all species it contains. For each species, synonymies, type repositories, type localities, references and common names are listed. References are listed in abbreviated form with access to full references.

Species Database:
Search by scientific, common name or synonym to call up species-specific pages with information such as full taxonomy, type species, names, size, predators, prey, biogeography, distribution maps, country lists, life history, images, videos, references, genetic information links and other internet resources.

Image Database:
Search our ~1650 cephalopod images which cover all life stages, behaviour, ecology, taxonomy as well as many other aspects of these amazing animals. Each image has a caption, key words, location, photographer and other data.

Video Database:
There are ~150 video clips in the video database.

Reference Database:
There are now over 6000 ceph papers in our reference database.

Researcher Directory:
Looking for a grad school supervisor or cephalopod expert? There are over 400 names in the International Directory of Cephalopod Workers.

Predators and Prey:
Search by predator, prey or cephalopod species in our predators and prey databases.

To answer the question, "Where does it live?", CephBase has 3,175 referenced localities for 328 species served by OBIS. All latitude and longitude data used to generate maps are from published sources and are listed in tables and referenced. In many cases, the individual specimens used to populate the database can be tracked to a museum repository.

The purpose of CephBase is to provide taxonomy, life history, distribution, fisheries, and ecology for all living cephalopod species (i.e., octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus). Such a global database will facilitate collaboration both within the cephalopod community and among all marine sciences.

The data can be accessed through the following web portals (see Related URL field below):
-OBIS, Ocean Biogeographic Information System, CoML (Census of Marine Life) web portal.
-EurOBIS, the European Ocean Biogeographique Information System.
-SCAR-MarBIN, the Marine Biodiversity Information Network, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, International Council for Science.