The Shape of Life - The Shape of Life was an 8-hour PBS series that aired in the U.S. in April 2002. Each hour-long segment has its own section on this beautiful website, which is as professional as they come. Each segment focuses on one or two questions in the history of life and a particular organism that helps answer. The questions range from "How did animals begin to move?" to "What caused the rapid appearance of new kinds of animals 520 million years ago?" Clearly, full answers are not given, but each section has a brief summary of the current state of knowledge before it jumps into research by particular scientists. These sections are the highlight of the site, as one gets to find out about current research by at least 15 different groups. Everything is written for a general audience, and beautiful photos along with the occasional video clip stud the text. Finally, there are indexes to all of the images used, species studied, and researchers profiled, with links chosen by the producers and the scientists. In the end, some readers might find themselves wanting more details, but the materials that are available are handsomely presented and fascinating. Rating: 9 out of 10 (21 December 2002) AS
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/shapeoflife/
Hinterland Who's Who - Canadian Wildlife - This excellent collection of species factfiles and video clips from the Canadian Wildlife service is head and shoulders above most "factfiles" websites, due to the sheer size and quality of the entries themselves. Browse the list of birds and mammals and you'll soon see that an enormous amount of work has gone into these pages - in fact, the collection has been drawn from over 40 years of production by the CWS, and the site explains how their work on some of the earliest wildlife documentaries ever made has entered into the heart of Canadian popular culture. Each factfile, available as a webpage or downloadable pdf file, covers the main biological areas you'd expect: behaviour, reproduction, physical characteristics and distribution, and it's all well written and clearly laid out with photos, maps and illustrations. The "wildlife vignettes" are 60-second documentaries on a subset of the species covered by the factfiles - you can watch them as streaming videos if you have Windows Media Player (available for both Macs and PCs) or you can download the movie files separately and watch them later with most other movie players. Rating 9 out of 10 (20 November 2002) RJN
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/hww-fap/eng_ind.html
Mini Beasts - Based on the guidelines set by the National Curriculum, this colorful site will appeal to creature-loving youngsters. The mini-beasts in question are the arachnids, mollusks, arthropods, worms, and insects, and fun activities include a click-and-paint-the-beast feature, sounds, and a matching game. (9 August 2002) AD
http://www.hedds.co.uk/mini_beasts/
Endangered Earth - This site contains a great deal of information on specific endangered species, if you have the patience to look for it. The home page is attractive but less than intuitive, and this reviewer had difficulty reading some of the light brown text on a dark brown background. The most interesting sections were listed on the left hand side under the heading "Projects." For example, the "Tigers in Crisis" section provided detailed and engaging coverage of the situation facing all remaining subspecies of tiger, including a description of the problem of poaching for use in Chinese medicine. The author, site designer and journalist Craig Kasnoff, refrained from playing the "blame game," and instead provided a portrait of the poverty that drives mid-Asian poachers, noting the issues that must be addressed if poaching is to stop. Endangered Earth also provides beautiful downloadable photographs of a number of endangered species that can be used on your desktop. At the time this reviewer visited the site, several sections were under reconstruction, including the Site Tour, and some links were a dead end. Hopefully the redesign will bring some of the buried treasures on this site closer to the surface. (18 December 2001) RKM
http://www.endangeredearth.com/
Man and Mollusc - This site really does have a great deal of material to peruse - you'll find about as much info on snails, slugs, squid and their kin as it's possible to pack into a website. Follow the 'Articles' link and read about the 'age-old and fascinating relationship' between human and molluscs, which includes everything from eating them and making jewellery from their shells to manufacturing cocaine and feeding chickens. Molluscan biology is also covered at great length: visitors can choose between in-depth advanced or toned-down beginner's versions of an article which goes through all the major types of mollusc and how they live their lives. As well as this you'll find an enormous collection of links to further reading, a midi-enhanced kids section, a 'mollusc of the moment' page with pictures and info on particular mollusc species, and that's just for starters. As the authors explain, "...just as today becomes the past and tomorrow becomes the present, man's uses of molluscs and their shelly homes is boundless." As if you ever thought otherwise... (1 December 2001) RJN
http://manandmollusc.net/
