#biodiversityheritagelibrary — Public Fediverse posts

A Bonanza For Fans Of The Natural World - The Digital Library Sharing 64 million Pages Of Scientific Knowledge With Everyone
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/18/natural-world-digital-biodiversity-heritage-library-scientific-knowledge-free-access-aoe ← shared technical media article
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https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ <-- shared BHL home page / data portal
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[glorious resource!]
“The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.“
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“The Biodiversity Heritage Library [BHL} is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities...
Some go there to read about the wood that Victorian manufacturers used to make walking sticks. Others want to see an illustration of a Tasmanian tiger or marvel at the field diary of one of the first known botanists to explore the Antarctic.
Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the... BHL – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library.
This week, a report from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew... revealed the crucial role digitisation [like BHL’s] is playing in “transforming our ability to understand and respond to the climate and biodiversity crises”, but it was the creation of the BHL 20 years ago that first demonstrated how bringing centuries of scientific knowledge online can unlock transformative discoveries and insights about the natural world.
David Iggulden, who chairs the BHL executive committee alongside his job as head of data and digital, library and archives at RBG Kew, describes the library as an invaluable and “absolutely essential” resource for scientists in the field. But it is also used by scientific researchers, environmental historians, educators, art historians, artists, citizen scientists and members of the public who – like Iggulden – simply enjoy browsing its contents on a rainy weekend.
“I just get caught up in it sometimes, looking at the various collections,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we can explore such a vast array of different collections from very different institutions.”
As well as published biodiversity literature and journals, there are letters, illustrations, climate records, field diaries, ecosystem profiles, distribution records and manuscripts containing the original collecting stories of a particular species or detailing voyages of discovery…”
#BiodiversityHeritageLibrary #BHL #Biodiversity #library #literature #illustrations #UK #texts #historic #reference #online #opendata #visualisation #museum #walkingstick #university #research #institute #species #ecosystems #habitat #data #digital #climatechange #response #reference #resource #correspondence #illustrations #records #manuscripts
@BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64 million pages of scientific knowledge with everyone.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities.

Now its future is in doubt.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260618-a-bonanza-for-fans-of-the-natural-world-the-digital-library-sharing-64-million-pages-of-scientific-knowledge-with-everyone?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#Biodiversity #Libraries #ClimateCrisis #Zoology #KewGardens #Wildlife #Environment #Science #Heritage #Conservation #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

The Guardian: A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone. “Today, however, the future of the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature is under threat. Earlier this year the Smithsonian Institution, which has faced severe funding cuts under the Trump administration, stopped hosting the […]

Happy 20th birthday #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary! 🎂🥳

This week, GBIF Executive Secretary Joe Miller is at the Natural History Museum, #London celebrating #BHLDay2026.

The public symposium celebrates the incredible collaboration of libraries, museums, herbaria and research institutions around the world to deliver open access to biodiversity knowledge. It also reviews and reflects on future opportunities for BHL to further integrate into the bioinformatics data environment. 📖

The #LivingData2025 conference is starting in a few hours. I'm attending virtually and will be presenting on a very simple workflow for extracting #biodiversity data from the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary My presentation has been prerecorded and can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyiwfIi_Wc&pp #Wikidata

Piseinotecus

Created Saturday 20 September 2025

The other day I stumbled upon this passage in the Wikipedia page of Piseinotecus, a genus of beautiful nudibranch sea slugs:

The name Piseinotecus comes from the Portuguese sentence “pisei no Teco” (I stepped onto Teco). Teco was the name of a dog of the zoologists Ernst Marcus and Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus. While they were looking for a name for the genus, their friend, the zoologist Diva Diniz Corrêa, was visiting them and stated the sentence while coming down the stairs to announce that she had accidentally stepped onto their dog.

From the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piseinotecus

What a delightful story! Ernst, Eveline, and Diva were brilliant zoologists and contributed immensely to our knowledge of marine invertebrates.

The source is a short paper of recollections written by Eveline:

Piseinotecus is an entire sentence in Portuguese. Our friend, Diva, stated it while coming down the stairs one day. She had stepped upon our dog, Teco, and while we were looking for a new generic name, had told us Pisei (in Portuguese) = I stepped; no = onto; Tecus = the dog’s name. In the meantime, this genus has turned out to be the type of a new family. Piseinotecidae appears in the literature today.

See it here: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45940346#page/459/mode/1up

Marcus, E. d. B.-R. (1987). Selected Recollections from My Life. American Malacological Bulletin, 5, 183–184. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/143207

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URL: https://brunovellutini.com/posts/piseinotecus/

#bibliography #biodiversity #biodiversityHeritageLibrary #invertebrate #marineBiology #mollusca

BHL Image Explorer

Created Saturday 13 September 2025

This is a wonderful project mashing images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) with data from Wikidata and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

BHL Image Explorer: https://bhl-gallery.toolforge.org/

It enables us to explore the figure plates present in BHL’s catalog (also on Flickr and Wikimedia Commons), links with other databases, and keeps track of their use in Wikipedia pages. It’s a nice way to expose these images and encourage their use on Wikipedia.

The project was created by Tiago Lubiana who was BHL’s Wikimedian-in-Residence during last semester. He finished his term a couple of months ago are wrote some closing thoughts in BHL’s blog. I enjoyed the quote below.

In an age of cheap, AI-generated illustrations, there is something grand in seeing these human-made pieces of scientific art, tales of the biodiversity-loving nature of humankind across the centuries.

Seeds for the Future: Closing Thoughts from BHL’s Wikimedian-in-Residence at https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/07/seeds-for-future-closing-thoughts-from-bhls-wikimedian-in-residence.html

Via Siobhan Leachman.

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URL: https://brunovellutini.com/posts/bhl-image-explorer/

#bibliography #biodiversity #biodiversityHeritageLibrary #image

@ehasbrouck @Yuvalne

Thanks again. The URL-per-page is a technical aspect (one that I rely on daily for managing references to materials in the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary - part of IA, but separate from the OpenLibrary). The issues at question are the channels by which books become scanned copies, the proportions of such texts that can be accessed by users, and whether IA is operating properly as a library in what its doing for the still-encumbered works.

I do understand your concern and won't try to argue you into seeing IA as a positive, although I am confident it is one of the most important efforts we have for ensuring the preservation of human knowledge and culture in increasingly dark times. I do believe that the NWU page weakens its case by repeatedly insinuating bad faith (e.g. in the comments following the take-down of the freelance writers' guide).

#BiodiversityHeritageLibrary has issued a call for support from organisations able to help with hosting, development and management.

https://about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-support/

Here is an update from the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary on how they are responding to the coming end of their relationship with the #Smithsonian.

https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/05/transition-update-1.html

#BHL is a critical resource for #biodiversity #research and #taxonomy. It needs to be preserved.

A New Future for the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-future-for-bhl.html

Clearly expected given all that is happening, but the #Smithsonian will soon no longer be able to host the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary, and it is in need of (a) new home(s):

https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-future-for-bhl.html

#BHL is a treasure and ensuring its preservation is of the greatest importance for #biodiversity research and #taxonomy.

As the news item indicates, this may also be an opportunity to imagine better ways to make these critical publications more accessible to the community.

#ILoveBHL

A press release is out about the Biodiversity Heritage Library. From 1 January 2026 the Smithsonian will no longer host the administrative functions of BHL. BHL is looking for a new home. For further information see https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-future-for-bhl.html
I admit to being very concerned given how vital BHL is to the biodiversity knowledge infrastructure. I hold hope that a hero institution or group of institutions ride to the rescue.
#ILoveBHL #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

How exposed is the #InternetArchive to government attack in the US? How much is backed up elsewhere?

Is it still best to contribute financially to archive.org? Or are there other bodies outside the US that need funds to back it up and that may be lower risk?

I could just give to the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary which is the resource I use most, but that is at the Smithsonian and federal and hence perhaps at more risk than IA.

Suggestions?

Päivitin palveluita. Kävin poliisiasemalla antamassa sormenjäljet henkilökorttia varten, ja Prismassa. Leikkasin parran ja kävin suihkussa.

https://marginaa.li/2025/01/17/17-tammikuuta-2025/

Indeed, it is difficult to appreciate just how extremely small we are compared to these animals. /Photograph of #BlueWhale from #DiscoveryReports, 1929. vol. 1 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54063#page/669/mode/1up
#BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

If you missed the Australian #Library and Information Association #Digitisation & Preservation Group webinar yesterday, below is a link to the recording. It contains engagement stories from #Trove , #WikimediaAustralia ,
and the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary #Australia https://vimeo.com/863865035/f61ab287c4?share=copy

Folk wanting to know more about #Digitisation of #Biodiversity literature by the #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary and how #Trove and #Wikimedia projects are used and benefit should sign up for this webinar. (Digitisation Preservation Webinar 1pm, Wed September 13th AEST) https://digitalpreservation.alia.org.au/event/alia-digitisation-preservation-webinar-engagement/ #Wikidata #DigitalLibraries

I'm amazed I never knew of this early #entomology publication from 1634, Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39877094

The illustrations are often very recognisable and well-observed. There's no English Wikipedia page for the book itself. German Wikipedia has one: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insectorum_sive_minimorum_animalium_theatrum

#biodiversityheritagelibrary #insects #engravings #orthoptera

I love it when I can add a #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary creator id to a #Wikidata item. I know that #BHL will make use of Wikidata to ingest other identifiers into their catalogue ensuring information about the author is improved.

I recently co-authored a blog on the Biodiversity Heritage Library's efforts to round trip persistent identifiers via Wikidata. You can see it here https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2023/02/round-tripping-persistent-identifiers-with-wikidata-query-service.html #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary #Wikidata #PIDs

@Edent #Linneaus in 1758 divided mankind into a range of races (or subspecies, the terms were indistinguishable): ferus (goes on all 4s), americanus (red), asianus (yellow or sallow), europeanus (white), africanus (black). Each is attributed one of the medieval humours.

Original Latin & Turton's English translation of 50 years later.

Images from #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

Daily sneak peek into 2023 courses: “Data Born in Literature: 600 Years of Special Collections Serving the Planet.” Checkout our our website around December 2, 2022 for more info! #biodiversity #informatics #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary #digitalhumanities #taxonomy #nomenclature #datastudies #rarebooks #specialcollections #bookhistory #datahistory

Is Lineus longissimus the longest animal on Earth?

Last year, the PeerJ journal published an article about the largest marine animals. The neat infographic accompanying their tweet immediately got my attention (if the figure is not showing up, check it in full resolution here):

https://twitter.com/thePeerJ/status/555020374807941120

For a couple of milliseconds, I thought the scale bar below the whales was a worm. Why? Because here in Norway, at the Sars Centre, we study a ribbon worm named Lineus longissimus – the longest animal on Earth.

Or at least it’s supposed to be. That is what’s in the Guinness World Records (Cawardine 1995), on Wikipedia, in books and papers, and recently on the BBC. Every year on Bergen’s Research Day we tell the kids that this thin dark-brownish worm they are looking under the scope can reach 60 meters long! But how do we know?

Finding Lineus longissimus

We collect live specimens of Lineus longissimus by dredging the bottom of the Norwegian fjords near Bergen. They are active, bear a good dose of charisma and survive well in the laboratory. They are also voracious predators and like to feed on annelids, which are usually swallowed whole:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zg7pH8xdDk

But so far, the longest individual we’ve found is near two meters long. How could it reach sixty?

Digging up old literature

Here is what the most-cited description says:

The longest known worm is the bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus), a kind of ribbon worm or nemertine (Nemertea) found in the shallow waters of the North Sea. A specimen which washed ashore after a severe storm at St. Andrews, Fife, UK, in 1864, measured more than 55 m (ca. 180 ft) in length.

Cawardine 1995

In 1864, a near-sixty meters worm was found in Scotland. Found by whom? Measured how? Preserved where? Who wrote the original report? All the links mentioned above converge to one source: Cawardine (1995). But to my surprise, his book does not cite the original report. For this reason, I decided to check out what humanity knows about the length of Lineus longissimus.

I knew the date. The location suggested that the report must be in some British literature. To find the original sixty-meter observation, I resorted to the great Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), which helped me several times to access the classical literature during my doctorate work. BHL has a neat feature where you can search the literature by a species name, and the bootlace worm Lineus longissimus is present in many publications.

Here is an almost exhaustive compilation of reports with the length of Lineus longissimus:

What I found is that nobody has ever captured (and reported) a live Lineus longissimus more than 10 meters long (but see below!). The longest length is reported by Davies (1816) as 28 meters, and this is an approximation based on how the animal shrinks upon fixation. All subsequent reports simply reproduce this number as a maximum length.

What about the sixty-meter worm from St. Andrews?

An ocean’s giant

I initially missed it and months went by… until Jon Noremburg gave the answer in a comment to the above feeding video: the St. Andrews report comes from McIntosh.

This is unquestionably the giant of the race, and even now I am not quite satisfied about the limit of its growth, for after a severe storm in the spring of 1864 a specimen was thrown on shore at St. Andrews which half filled a dissecting jar eight inches wide and five inches deep. Thirty yards were measured without rupture, and yet the mass was not half uncoiled.

McIntosh (1873–1874: pg. 183)

Thirty yards (=90 feet or 27 meters) is the measured length of a half-worm. Therefore, a whole-worm measures the double, 60 yards (=180 feet or 55 meters). Right? Well… if the worm was partly in knots, how do we know that the measured part is actually half of the length? We don’t.

Calculating the volume of a worm

But the report has a crucial piece of information. The worm was said to fill half of an 8 by 5 inches jar (ca. 13 cm). With some basic math, we can calculate the volume of the worm and estimate its length from that. Assuming that the jar was cylindrical:

Radius (r) is 4 inches and the height is 2.5 inches (half of the 5 inches jar). Thus, the volume of the worm equals:

Or converting to meters:

We can then assume the worm is a cylinder and estimate its height for any given diameter. The height will be the length of the worm.

The width of L. longissimus ranges from 2 to 10 mm. I used the formula above to calculate the estimated lengths of the famous St. Andrews worm:

The most conservative estimate (10 mm of diameter) results in an almost 30 m long worm, suggesting that the St. Andrews specimen might indeed have been over 30 m! How much longer is hard to say.

The specimens we have in the lab are between 1 and 4 mm wide, but most are below or near a meter long. It would be interesting to know how the body width scales with the body length in Lineus longissimus.

A worm as long as a blue whale

In any case, the St. Andrews specimen was at least +30 meters, which is a comparable size to the longest ocean giants – the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (36.6 m) and the Blue Whale (33 m) (McClain et al. 2015). In favor of the nemertean, the volume estimation seems to corroborate his majestic length.

McClain and collaborators (2015) stress the difficulty of estimating the size of large marine animals. Lack of data, biased sampling or simply feasibly measuring a 30 m animal complicates body size assessment. Nemerteans have an additional aggravating factor: they shorten or elongate with ease. Possibly, volume is a more accurate measure of body size for these slim worms.

The authors also highlight that the greatest reported size is quite different from the mean population size. This finding seems true for Lineus longissimus as well. Despite the largest 30–55 m estimate, most of the reports describe lengths not longer than 10 m, often ranging from 1 to 5 m. Which might show best the normal size distribution of Lineus longissimus populations.

The longest animal on Earth?

Sixty meters might be far-fetched, but there is relatively good evidence that this nemertean can reach – and maybe surpass – the impressive length of a blue whale, thus placing Lineus longissimus indeed within the world’s ocean giants.

References

Carwardine, M. (1995). The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Guinness World Records Limited.

McClain, C.R., Balk, M.A., Benfield, M.C., Branch, T.A., Chen, C., Cosgrove, J., Dove, A.D.M., Gaskins, L.C., Helm, R.R., Hochberg, F.G., Lee, F.B., Marshall, A., McMurray, S.E., Schanche, C., Stone, S.N. & Thaler, A.D. (2015). Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna. PeerJ 3, e715. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.715

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URL: https://brunovellutini.com/posts/lineus-longissimus-longest-animal/

#bibliography #biodiversity #biodiversityHeritageLibrary #invertebrate #lineusLongissimus #marineBiology #nemertea

Brachiopod historical hunt

Another historical hunt for brachiopods ended successfully at @BioDivLibrary :)

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URL: https://brunovellutini.com/posts/brachiopod-historical-hunt/

#bibliography #biodiversity #biodiversityHeritageLibrary #brachiopoda #invertebrate #marineBiology #tweet