What Is Animal Diversity Web?

Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.org) is a University of Michigan-hosted online encyclopedia of animal species and their natural history. It is best suited for students, educators, and general readers who need species-level information on classification, biology, and diversity, and who want to browse by taxonomy or search by keyword. The site is organized around animal groups and provides multimedia and specimen-related resources alongside written species accounts.

Who runs it and what it covers

The site is associated with the University of Michigan, which appears in the page headings. Its scope is broad across the animal kingdom rather than limited to one region or group. The homepage lists major taxonomic groups, including:

• Actinopterygii — ray-finned fishes
• Amphibia — frogs, salamanders, and caecilians
• Annelida — segmented worms
• Aves — birds
• Chelicerata — chelicerates
• Chondrichthyes — rays, sharks, and relatives
• Cnidaria — jellyfish, sea anemones, corals, and relatives
• Crustacea — crustaceans
• Echinodermata — starfish, sea urchins, and relatives
• Insecta — insects
• Mammalia — mammals
• Mollusca — bivalves, cephalopods, snails, and relatives
• Nematoda — roundworms
• Platyhelminthes — flatworms
• Porifera — sponges
• Reptilia — turtles, snakes, lizards, and relatives

This list doubles as a browsing menu: selecting a group takes you into that part of the classification.

What kinds of resources it offers

The homepage search interface lets you filter results by content type. The available options shown are:

So the site is not just text descriptions — it also aggregates visual, audio, specimen, and map material where available.

How to search it

1. Enter one or more keywords in the search box.
2. Use quotes to search for an exact phrase — for example, wombats or "gray wolves".
3. Optionally narrow results using the content-type filters (Pictures, Sounds, Maps, etc.).
4. If you are unsure how to phrase a query, the site points to a Search Guide with more tips.

The expected result is a set of matching records you can then filter or open. If a plain keyword returns too many unrelated hits, adding quotes around a multi-word phrase is the main way to tighten it.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Animal Diversity Web when you want:

• An overview of a species or higher taxon and where it sits in classification.
• Multimedia or specimen references to supplement a school project or lesson.
• A browse-by-group starting point rather than a single search box.

Consider other sources when you need very current research literature, region-specific field data, or detailed conservation status updates, since those are not what the homepage presents as its core offering. The site's own "Disclaimer" heading indicates it carries usage and accuracy caveats worth reading before citing it in formal work.