The world today teems with life. Where ever you look something is alive. Then imagine 95 percent of it dying in the blink of a geological eye. It's not a fantasy, it did happen, two hundred and fifty million years ago. It was the day the Earth nearly died.

The Encyclopedia of Life will serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the ...