Shark-References
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| File:Shark-References.png | |
Type of site | Catalogue and database of recent and fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras taxa. |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Stephansposching, Germany |
| Owner | Jürgen Pollerspöck, Dr. Nicolas Straube |
| Founder(s) | Jürgen Pollerspöck |
| Editor | Jürgen Pollerspöck, Dr. Nicolas Straube |
| Website | https://shark-references.com/ |
| Launched | 2009-06-01 |
| Current status | 2025-11-28 |
The online literature database www.shark-references.com collects information on all fossil and recent representatives of cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes: sharks, rays and chimaeras) including the corresponding scientific publications which are provided as references. As of November 2025, shark-references.com included more than 33,300 scientific papers, 2,600 genus names, 22,000 species names, 8,200 images, and 9,100 deposited datasets on type material[1]. Shark-references.com is operated by Jürgen Pollerspöck (Stephansposching, Germany) and Prof. Dr. Nicolas Straube (Bergen, Norway) and is open access.
Operation
The shark-references.com database is updated several times a month and is constantly expanded. Users can send missing or not yet recorded publications, taxa, or details about type material to the operators via e-mail. After review, the reported data are promptly included in the https://shark-references.com/. The worldwide reach is evidenced by the current user numbers (October 26, 2025 – November 24, 2025) of more than 45,000 users, 58,000 views, and 220,000 used links on the website during the specified period. Its practical application possibilities facilitate literature research on cartilaginous fish taxa, which led, inter alia, to the official recommendation of use by the IUCN shark specialist group for its members.
History
The foundation of the online database was based on the idea of providing a central location for all references to publications, current taxonomy, and data on type material for fossil and recent Chondrichthyes taxa. The following lists were to be automatically generated:
a) Literature List: The alphabetical literature list contains the usual bibliographic information for each publication, such as authors, year of publication, title, place of publication, Digital Object Identifier, and abstract. Furthermore, for works on fossil taxa, details about the location and age of the finds are displayed. For all publications, the described taxa, as well as the newly described taxa in the case of first descriptions, are also listed. This list can be displayed as a complete list, as a list that only features recent taxa, or only fossil taxa.
b) Author List: As an alternative to the literature list, all published references on the topic of Chondrichthyes by that author are listed here under each author's name. The same information is displayed for the individual references as in the literature list.
c) Species Lists: The species lists, generated partly as a complete list fossil or recent, including invalid species names, and partly as lists of valid species for fossil or recent taxa, contain the usual taxonomic details (Author, Genus, Family, Order...) and links to the original descriptions of the species, genus, and family. This information is available via the blue "Info Symbol". In addition, a list of all references containing the species in question (or a synonym thereof) can be accessed via the "Literature Symbol". For valid species, the "Shark-References Symbol" also appears. This links to a short species description with all available information, such as IUCN Red List evaluations or GenBank entries.
d) Type Database: All known types have been recorded for all recent species; this part of the database is under construction for fossil species. This data is displayed sorted by the abbreviation of the public collection. This data is also available by accessing the species descriptions.
Innovations
- Cartilaginous Fish Parasite Directory: This directory is available as a Host-Parasites-List or as a Parasite-Hosts-List.
- Full-text Search: Allows searching more than 30,000 scientific papers. Due to copyright protection, results are only output in the form of literature citations and can be downloaded. A user manual is available in German.[2] and English[3]
- Project "Tooth Morphology": Data and images of jaws and teeth of recent species are centrally collected and made available to users.
- Newsletter: Available to users as an email subscription or as a download on the website.
- Social Media: News is published on the two social media platforms Facebook [1] and Instagram [2].
References
- ↑ Pollerspöck, J. & Straube, N. – Shark-References – Website. Retrieved on November 25, 2025
- ↑ Pollerspöck, J. & Straube, N. – Shark-References – Manual Advanced Search German version. Retrieved on November 25, 2025
- ↑ Pollerspöck, J. & Straube, N. – Shark-References – Manual Advanced Search English version. Retrieved on November 25, 2025
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