Add taxonomic hierarchies to Google Earth

Professional biologists and amateur naturalists can now add taxonomic hierarchies to the Google Earth client through a collaborative effort of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). Taxonomies are available for download from itis.gbif.net at the taxonomic ranks of Order, Family and Genus. The Google Earth icon and *Download* web link appear directly below the Scientific Name for all taxa at those taxonomic ranks. If this is your first time please read about the requirements for the Google Earth client

Download taxonomies from itis.gbif.net

Features of the downloaded taxonomies

• The ITIS taxonomy is downloaded into the Temporary Places folder of Google Earth.
• Click on the arrows to expand the heirarchy through all subordinate levels.
• The taxonomic rank appears on folders and beside taxa.
• Click on each taxon to view a popup box that provides links to the ITIS page for each taxon, a link to Google images, and links to the GBIF occurrence records web page if available. These will appear in a browser that opens in the lower half of the Google Earth client or separately.
• The ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number is listed.
• Common names are provided when available.
• The popup box for the top taxon of the hierarchy provides additional information including the taxonomic hierarchy up to the kingdom.

Personalizing the downloaded taxonomies

• Permanently save the downloaded taxonomy for future use by either dragging it into a folder in My Places or right mouse click and Save to My Places.
• The popup box for each taxon may contain a link to download GBIF records suitable for mapping in the Google Earth client.
• Click on the link and the records will download into the Temporary Places folder.
• You can move the downloaded records into the appropriate place in the taxonomic hierarchy.
• Right mouse click on the taxon name and Cut.
• Right mouse click beside the taxonomic record for the same taxon and Paste the map records for future reference.
• Add your own Placemarks and insert new Folders within the hierarchy.
• Right mouse click on any taxon and choose Edit to update the HTML of the popup box ( Description ) with other Internet links, comments etc.
• Right mouse click on the top taxon and Save as (*.kmz file) to save your personalized taxonomy to send to others.

About ITIS

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System provides authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes primarily for North America but also covers many taxonomic groups for the world (e.g birds, ants, cephalopods etc.). ITIS is a major contributor to the GBIF data portal's taxonomic classification through the Catalogue of Life partnership with Species 2000. ITIS has also been an Associate Participant of GBIF since March 2001.

These scripts have been contributed by Derek Munro of the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF) to GBIF beginning on 2005-09-28. More...