FAQ 

The TIGR Reptile Database CD-ROM edition

The next CD-ROM version with several significant improvements will be released in April 2008.

The previous CD-ROM (October 2006) contained the following items:

• Reptile Database as stand-alone application with separate species and literature databases and with separate fields for authors, years, continents, types, URLs (species database) and authors, years, titles, sources (literature database). Please note that these data are not searchable on the web separately. Data corresponds to the web edition except that there are many links missing on the web, e.g. from reference to species. The bibliography on the CD has about additional 5,000 references that are not in the web edition.
• 24-page operation manual with detailed descriptions of the database, search options, glossary.
• Free book: Volume 4 of the classical Duméril & Bibron Erpétologie Générale (1839) 572 pp. as 400 dpi PDF scans, organized by chapter (download a sample chapter on the genus Basiliscus (7 MB) here). You don't speak French? Well, the simple language of Duméril & Bibron can be translated surprisingly well by online translation services such as Google.

Table view of the CD version with separate fields (only two rows are shown):

 Note that cyou can search for authors, years etc. On the web you can do that only to a limited extent.

Single Record view with muliple function buttons (roughly original size; CD version zoomable):

Functions seen on this screen shot: Find name searches for species names in the species, synonym and subspecies fields (all the other fields can be searched independently and in all possible combinations, of course, by pressing CTRL-F or Apple-F). Blue buttons switch to different layouts including a summary layout that displays statistics (e.g. breakdown by year when species in a certain family have been described, breakdown by continent etc.). Open next URL opens web pages with images and other linked information. Open bibliography shows bibliography in detail as shown below.

Here is a look at the bibliography file: 

Functions seen on this screen shot: You may sort by author, year, title, or source by pushing the title buttons. Copy complete citations by clicking the copy button. Find species described in these references by pressing the species button.

Is the database complete?

The database is not absolutely complete - simply because taxonomy advances permanently - but it contains the most complete checklist you can get. It lists >8360 species (>99% of all extant reptile species), >99% of them with distribution data, >99% of them with original references etc. The literature database has more than 21,000 manually selected references of primary taxonomic interest (the online version has about 5,000 references less!). We will publish new releases of the CD-ROM along with updates of the reptile database on the web.

System Requirements

The database is available for Apple Macintosh (OS 10.2. or newer) and for Microsoft Windows (Windows 95 or newer). We do not support Mac OS 9 any more.

We have successfully tested the database on Windows 95 (version 4.00.950B), Windows 98, Windows NT (version 4.00.1381), Windows 2000, and XP. However, we encountered some problems on some older Win 95 systems (the database didn't work on all machines with version 4.00.950a). A minimum of 70 MB hard drive space, 64 MB of free RAM recommended.

The Mac version has been successfully tested on the following systems: MacOS X (10.2.8 through 10.4.8). A minimum of 70 MB hard drive space, 128 MB of free RAM recommended.

Pricing, orders, and delivery

For non-contributors, the CD-ROM is available for US $49 (outside the US for 49 Euros). Please note that VAT or sales taxes may be added depending on where you live. Send requests and cheques (made payable to Peter Uetz) to the address below. Users who ordered previous releases are entitled to a 50% discount.

Order online by credit car via Kagi.com (secure web site).

Please allow up to 4 weeks for delivery (especially for overseas shipments)

The CD-ROM is free for contributors (note new numbers!)

You may qualify as such by submitting ONE of the following:

• 20 photos of species that are represented in the database with 1 or no links (for copyright reasons preferably prints)
• 10 photos of species not yet covered at all
• 4 photos of genera not yet covered
• 15 reprints of taxonomic interest (minimum 100 pages)
• 25 articles (photocopies) of taxonomic interest (minimum 150 pages) (preferably as electronic files, i.e. scans)
• 1 book of taxonomic interest
• corrections or information filling gaps (negotiable)

All of these contributions are negotiable to some extent (and we reserve the right to reject photos of poor quality!). Let us know what you have BEFORE you submit anything, simply to make sure we don't receive too many duplicates etc. Photographers and authors retain copyrights for their works, of course.

Please note that the WWW-Version of the database is and will remain free! The CD-ROM will hopefully help us develop the database further and fund the public web version.

Frequently asked questions.

Information and Orders

Peter Uetz
Institut für Genetik
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
Postfach 3640
D-76021 Karlsruhe
Germany

e-mail: peter.uetz[a]itg.fzk.de (please replace [a] by @ - sorry! Spam protection!).

Created: 2 July 1997 / Last updated: 14 Feb 2008