IRMNG, the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera, was commenced in 2006 as an initiative of the Australian OBIS Node (OBIS Australia) following an analysis of the taxonomic names management needs of OBIS, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The main objectives were to produce a hierarchical classification of all life, both extant and fossil, to at least genus level (and to species as data were readily available) and to provide a tool to distinguish marine from nonmarine, and extant from fossil taxa. Over its first 10 years of operation IRMNG has acquired some 487,000 of an estimated c.500,000 published genus names (including both valid names and synonyms) in addition to almost 1.8 million species names, of which 1.3 million are considered valid. Throughout this time IRMNG data have been available for public query via a dedicated web interface based at CSIRO in Australia, as well as being supplied as bulk downloads for use by a range of global biodiversity projects. Over the period 2014-2016 responsibility for the system has been passed to the Data Centre Division of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium, which will be continuing the maintenance and development of IRMNG at its new web location, www.irmng.org. |
