Species Taxonomy Edits Screensaver
The Species Taxonomy Edits screensaver shows live edits to Wikispecies, the open taxonomic directory of life. Each row is someone adding or correcting a species, genus or family entry, read key-less from the MediaWiki API. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Species Taxonomy Edits screensaver works
The saver reads the Wikispecies MediaWiki API directly in your browser — no key and no account.
Live edits to Wikispecies, the open taxonomic directory of life.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
What Wikispecies is for
Wikispecies is a sister project of Wikipedia owned by the Wikimedia Foundation and launched in 2004. Instead of encyclopedic articles it is a structured database of taxonomy and nomenclature, directed at scientists rather than the general public. Besides taxon pages, it has pages for synonyms, taxon authorities, taxonomic publications, type material and the institutions that hold type specimens.
Taxonomy is revised constantly. Species are split and merged, genera moved and names corrected when the type specimen is re-examined, so an edit stream can hint at how active the field is. Not every line reflects a researcher at work, though, and the project links to Wikidata and to Wikipedia articles on individual species, so some edits are housekeeping.
Each row in the feed is an edit, not a discovery. Adding a reference, fixing a typo and creating a page appear alike, and a new page is not necessarily a newly described species. The project is built on the Linnaean framework of ranked taxa, and its content is freely licensed, so entries can be reused and shared.
A worked example
Live edits to Wikispecies, the open taxonomic directory of life. Each row is someone adding or correcting a species, genus or family entry, read key-less from the MediaWiki API.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Data comes straight from the Wikispecies MediaWiki API in your browser.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the Wikispecies MediaWiki API and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Does an edit mean a new species was found?
- No. An edit can be a reference, a correction or a new page for an existing taxon. New species are formally described in scientific publications, not on Wikispecies.
- Who runs Wikispecies?
- It is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation behind Wikipedia, and is edited by volunteers.