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The Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is a non-profit group that hosts an online database site that collects natural history, classification, species characteristics, conservation biology, and distribution information on species of animals. The website includes photographs, sound clips, and a virtual museum.
The local, relational database is written and maintained by staff and student contributors from the University of Michigan. [1] The website has a virtual museum, containing mostly mammals and a collection of skulls that can be virtually handled, and there is also a cell phone app. [2] Resources are available for K–12 instructors. [3] [4] The ADW markets itself as a resource for constructing scholarly documents.
The ADW was created in 1995 by Philip Myers, a former biology professor at the University of Michigan. [5] The site contains around 2,150 animal species with around 11,500 images and 725 sounds. [6][ when?] The developers of the website planned to add 250 more species by the end of 2017. [4] The ADW has over 250 accounts of higher taxonomic groups. [4]
Most of the contributors to the website are undergraduate students. ADW has collaborated with 30 colleges and universities across the United States. The undergraduate students often submit reports on species as part of their course requirements. [7] Each account is edited by both the professors and the staff at the ADW. [7] As of November 2017 [update], the Animal Diversity Web had 3,675 contributors. [4]
ADW has partnered with the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). [8] The BioKIDS Critter Catalog, created by the University of Michigan, provides a simplified version of the animal accounts. [9] AmphibiaWeb is a partner that provides information on amphibian species. [10]
The current staff of the Animal Diversity Web is employed at the University of Michigan (as of 2017):