Zoological Record​

Determine the first appearance of an animal in published literature

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Zoological Record™ is the world’s oldest continuing database of animal biology. It is considered the world’s leading taxonomic reference, and with coverage back to 1864, has long acted as the world’s unofficial register of animal names. The broad scope of coverage ranges from biodiversity and the environment to taxonomy and veterinary sciences.

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    Total number of serials included: 4,666
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    Total number of records included: 4,475,508
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    Year coverage starts: 1864

Zoological Record Index offers:

A full range of disciplines

Find information in all aspects of animal biology, paleobiology, and zoology, focusing on the natural biology of animals (fossil, recent, whole animal, behavioral, environmental, and cellular studies).

Backfile Data to 1864

Track over 150 years of vital data and find the supporting — or refuting — data you need. Modern indexing terms and search functions have been added to older backfiles to further ease your search. More backfiles give you the power to conduct deeper, more comprehensive searches and track trends through time.

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Comprehensive Coverage

Covers over 4,500 serials, plus many other sources of information including books, reports, and meetings. Every item included in Zoological Record has met the high standards of an objective evaluation process that eliminates excess and delivers data that is accurate, meaningful and timely.

Integrated access to other Web of Science data and tools

Accessing Zoological Record on Web of Science™ means you can simultaneously search all otherWeb of Science resources your institution subscribes to, and take advantage of powerful tools such as cited reference searching. A common vocabulary within this platform enables your search terms to be matched to all relevant terms that may be categorized differently in other databases, delivering more complete and relevant results.

Bringing historical data into a modern format

In 1864, a group of scientists affiliated with the Zoological Society of London and the British Museum founded Zoological Record as a way to communicate amongst themselves. As others in the scientific community started to use this resource, its content was expanded and the Zoological Society of London assumed complete responsibility for its publication as of 1886.

In 1980, the Zoological Society and BioSciences Information Service of Biological Abstracts™ (BIOSIS™) joined forces to produce and publish Zoological Record, and today, BIOSIS (part of the Web of Science) is the sole publisher.

Over the years, Zoological Record has expanded and adapted to the needs of its users, and today is recognized as the leading and most comprehensive source for biodiversity, systematics, and zoological information.

As the oldest continuing bibliographic database in life sciences, Zoological Record offers a unique value: access to over 150 years of original descriptions of new animal species, as well as all subsequent nomenclature changes. Zoological Record covers the entire animal kingdom, including living and fossil species, making it the primary animal names repository. The full Zoological Record collection, both archival and current, provides all this valuable information in one place, digitized and re-indexed with modern terms and thoroughly searchable and linkable.

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