AmphibianID - a website concept

I did not really figure out where to put this, so I put it into the section that was the origin of the idea. Feel free to move it around, as this does not accomplish anything for actual taxonomy.


The idea is simple: provide anyone with an easy-to-use, graphic, yet extensive key for the identification of animals - in this case: Amphibians.

First things first. I was identifying my probably millionth insect in my biology ID course when this idea struck me: identifying insects is a pain in the - well you know - but why does it have to be the same for amphibians - at least for the 'normal' person. Later the week, I should figure out a very basic, yet not easy to realize design for a website, that would probably make it possible to ID most of the amphibians you'd find - and more.

A giant picture pool is the base for this ID concept.

This pool would be presented on the website as a massive amount of uncoordinated pictures - one for each species of amphibians. First thing you would reckognize would be an explosion of colourful pictures, making you aware of the diversity this class has to offer.

One bar to ID them all.

To bring order into the chaos of pictures, you have one simple (or really complex, how those who would have to work on it would say), tool - a search bar, very much like you know them from webstores. The criteria presented there should be able to limit the pictures down to at least just a few that you could choose from, making it easy to pick the right ID.


As always with concepts (at least mine), this is not very advanced and I can already point out some problematic phases in the (if it ever gets real) development of the project. I will list some of those I could think of, feel free to add own criticism - that is what the thread is there for.

Problems (and maybe solutions).

1. Realization: As I have, as pointed out above, no idea about web programming or design, it would be needed for others, probably professionals to join this project. Also for the criteria for the key it would be needed to massivle digitize other sources like books - as well as working out a proper key concept for all amphibians that fits the site.

possible solution: get an institution interested in it. Universities may be able to organize some of their IT (or design) and biology students to work in an interdisciplinary project for credit points or similar.

2. Picture pool: The site needs a massive pool of pictures of all amphibians out there to exist in the thought-of way. Getting them one-by-one would be the bureaucratic procedure of a life-time.

possible solution: calphoto, the website of the University Berkeley, already has a giant picture pool available. Presenting a ready concept to them might get them interested in it.
Also, linking pictures from google searches (as thumbnails) might be a legal way of achieving the wanted pool, although I am not sure of that.

3. Change of Taxonomy, change in species distribution: As we all know, things get moved around, get a new name, are pooled and divided etc.pp. Also, due to habitat destruction and what not, species are often not found on the same distributions as literature suggest.

possible solutions: As of the taxonomy I have none. This site would either need constant changing (making it necessary to have an easy-to-adjust database) or would go out of date at some point. For the distribution problematic, this might even be helpful, as users could report their findings, if they found salamanders in unexpected areas.



This should be enough for the concept itself. I include two pictures. The first one shows you a very rough idea for the design of the site itself. Don't be to rough on my photoscape skills. The second one shows you an example of a search - some criteria are filled in and some of the pictures faded out, while the hits stayed visible. In this case I have succesfully identified Neurergus strauchii barani. I know there would be other choices if you filled in the same parameter as I did, but I figured anyone would get this as an example of how it should work. I would actually like it better for the wrong pictures to get completely hidden so that you have a clear, ever shrinking pool of animals to choose from the more criteria you add.
I used pictures from the last few calendar competitions, if there are copyright problems, please just mail me or write a PM on this thread. This concept will not be used anywhere else.


What do I write this thread for? To have your feedback on whether or not I should put a little work into it and maybe present it to an institution, your critique, your hints on similar projects that would make this one redundant.


Thank you.

Basic Design



Example success

Isn't there an app for that?

It's an interesting idea, but I think it overlaps with several more-developed sites which for the most part can't pull of the task so far: Amphibian Species of the World [taxonomy and geography listing of most amphibian species], CalPhotos [photographic listing of taxa], Salamanders of the Old World [reasonably up to date, but limited in scope to a small fraction of known salamanders], Salamanders of China Lifedesk [ditto], and CNAH [listing of regional herpetofauna with at most one photo per recognized form]. There are a multitude of other sites dealing with more taxonomically- or more usually geographically-delimited faunas. A big issue with salamanders is that photos won't cut it, especially among hobbyists. Too many salamanders cannot be reliably identified on the basis of physical appearance, to say nothing of the challenge of obtaining useful images of 800+ salamander taxa and 7000+ amphibian species [additional subspecies] in total.

I think the bottom line is that people are on average too lazy, lacking in specialized knowledge, and too cheap to obtain the resources that would truly do the job. A forum won't cut it, a random search of websites won't do the job, and despite the availability of many affordable printed references, some comprehensive sources are just plain expensive. It might be important to determine just how many people are even aware of the websites above, which are fairly authoritative and reliable. Instead of researching, many come to a forum and ask to be spoon-fed. Will a new site, however useful, actually be frequented much by anyone who isn't already capable of finding good information?

Those concerns and critiques aside, I think the best chance of success might be to start regionally and expand. Develop the site with regard to a single state or country and then expand it to include adjacent regions as well; or focus on certain smaller groups and work up into the larger ones. I think it might be hard to even cover a family as small as Sirenidae properly, given that the number of undescribed species exceeds the number of named ones, but little to no useful ID information is yet available. Likewise, the development of a site focused on, say North Carolina [there is one already - perhaps a master site connecting related sites would be an idea? Except there are those too, such as CNAH], is confounded by the fact that this particular state not only has a diversity of named species, but also has a number of hybrid populations, variable isolates, undescribed species, and even some hybrid swarms. How reliably can one truly identify the Desmognathus ocoee complex or Plethodon teyahalee, P.glutinosus, P.shermani, or the Eurycea bislineata complex?

There are definitely challenges. See if you can start small,work out the kinks, and then expand gradually. Meanwhile, for all the potential users, I would recommend exactly what the developers will have to do: buy a book, dig up the research papers, because those are the best and presently only reliable sources of ID information.

trailsofslime - I would love to know that app. I got an android phone and probably will get some kind of tablet asap, so would be good to not be in the situation to have to program something like that myself.

FrogEyes - thank you for your elaborate reply (it was indeed you that I hoped to receive answers from). Most of the pages / projects you mention I knew already and would be used as far as possible as a source for everything needed.

I indeed thought about starting with a more closed-down circle of animals. I shall try to figure out more, but at this point University got a fierce grip on me. I am hoping to be able to work on this when lectures are over, maybe I can present you with a small gadget sometime next summer.

Thanks for any reply, I'll keep this board posted when working on this project.