uBio

I have been perusing the many websites we have been introduced to. Lots of information and tools are available on these websites, so here I summarize the functions available on uBio (links to all tools provided on the website).

• uBioRSS- RSS feeds can be searched based on taxonomic names, as defined in the Species 2000 and ITIS Catalogue of Life 2007 Annual Checklist
• TaxaToy - plots the number of species discovered over time. This can also be queried according to taxon.
• OntoSpecies - provides links to browse taxonomic trees and provides links to several outside web resources
• LigerCat - Literature and Genomics Resource Catalogue
  
• Aging Portal -resource providing information on the lifespan and aging of species
• LinkIt - allows the user to retrieve taxonomic names (if I remember correctly, even ones that have been misspelled) from websites. (Apparently this tool is meant to be extended extracting info from pdfs in the future.) If these names are present in one of a number of other reference websites (e.g. nomenclatural websites, GBIF, phylogenetic websites, MorphBank, etc.), a link to these names on these other websites is provided.
• FindIT - taxonomic names are extraced from websites, free text or files that are uplaided (including pdfs). This is great if you want a list of species mentioned in a file/document.
• ParseIT - separates scientific names into their various components. Can be used for outputting in XML format.
• MapIT - All names in a document or website are extracted and... Well, the rest I don't really get. Will try to figure it out.
  
• CrawlIT - Crwals through a website and all links on that website and returns all the names mentioned there.
• X:ID - allows users to create their own identification keys which can be run over the web or locally.