Yahoo! News - Genetic Barcodes Will Identify World's Species: "Genetic Barcodes Will Identify World's Species

Science - Reuters

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of international scientists launched an ambitious project on Thursday to genetically identify, or provide a barcode for, every plant and animal species on the planet.


By taking a snippet of DNA from all the known species on Earth and linking them to photographs, descriptions and scientific information, the researchers plan to build the largest database of its kind.

'We have discovered that it is quite possible to have a short DNA sequence that can characterize just about every form of life on the planet,' Dr Richard Lane, director of science at the Natural History Museum in London, told a news conference.

Less than a fifth of the Earth's estimated 10 million species of plants and animals have been named. Researchers working on the Barcode of Life Initiative hope that genetically identifying all of them in a standardized way on a global scale will speed up the discovery of new ones.

Current techniques used to identify minute differences between species are complicated, time consuming and require specialist knowledge.

'What we are looking at is a new method which will allow just about anyone, in any part of the world, to recognize organisms without recourse to a particular specialist,' said Lane.

SCIENTIFIC TOOL

The initiative was launched at the International Conference for the Barcoding of Life in London by a consortium of museums, zoos, government agencies and organizations around the globe that study biodiversity.

'Our mission is to develop DNA barcoding as a scientific tool for rapid identification of species and to put that tool to"

A big thanks to hawkwatch volunteers world wide!


(excerpt from the Iowa Missouri Valley Times)
Governor Tom Vilsack presented the Volunteer Award to the Hitchcock HawkWatch last Oct. 22. Accepting the award on behalf of the HawkWatch volunteers were Clem Klaphake, Phylisha Eshelman, Chad Graeve, Sue Mattix and Jim Meyer.


November 2 of last year, an adult Red-tailed Hawk soared high above the Hitchcock Nature Center viewing deck at the Pottawattamie County Conservation park near Honey Creek. The sight of this raptor brought more excitement than those that had previously flown overhead. This raptor officially broke the 10,000 mark, a long awaited HawkWatch goal.
For the complete story in The Missouri Valley Times Iowa

It is nice to see these volunteers get the recognition that they deserve. Thanks to these dedicated volunteers, they have aided ornithologists and field biologist across North America by providing valueable information regarding raptor migrations.