Fishesoftexas.org Website Review

Starting over a century and half ago museum collectors, determiners, curators, and data managers began what FoTX continues. FoTX aims to bring their contributions together in a single standardized online database. The initial data set includes only museum specimen-based data - the highest quality, and only verifiable source verify and correct (if needed) thousands of suspicious specimen identifications Museum data initially recorded in bound paper ledgers have been independently digitized at many institutions. Now projects like ours are never discarded, but clearly flagged until specimens can be examined and identifications and other data confirmed. identification of Texas fishes, as well as new types of experimental, interactive and fully illustrated keys and species accounts in our also have accepted many “orphaned” specimens from various institutions no longer able to care for them. archived records, many not examined since deposition at donor museums, thus archiving these valuable data verification docu*ents permanently available, including images of habitat, collectors, and specimens at the time of collection. We as*embled a modeled fish community for a never-before collected Central Texas stream, then surveyed it and found the models to be good predictors of the community (with explainable differences). Now we are testing and developing methods for using models in stream Data and models are being used to experiment with predicting how changing climatic conditions might affect species distributions over We are also experimenting, in conjunction with our partners, with using our data and models to define priority areas for conservation.