Mammal Species of the World

Mammal Species of the World (MSW) is the online version of the important Wilson and Reeder text published in 1993 plus subsequent updates. Compiled by a team of international experts under the auspices of the American Society of Mammalogists, MSW is considered an authoritative checklist of all recognized mammal species.

MSW is a database of mammalian taxonomy and can be used as a convenient on-line reference for identifying or verifying recognized scientific names and for taxonomic research. The names are organized in a hierarchy that includes Order, Family, Subfamily, Genus and Species. Records include the following fields:

• Scientific name
• Author's name and year described
• Original publication citation
• Original name
• Common name
• Type Species
• Type Locality
• Distribution
• Comments
• Status

Species recognized in this database are limited to existing or recently extinct species (possibly alive during the preceding 500 years); in instances where the persistence of a species is doubtful, the comment field so indicates. Scientific names applied to domesticated mammals, and to the natural ancestors of domesticated forms, are the earliest valid names as called for by the Code of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1985).

An updated Third Edition of Mammal Species of the World was published late in 2005:

Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder (eds). 2005. Mammal Species of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2,142 pp. (Available from Johns Hopkins University Press, 1-800-537-5487 or (410) 516-6900 http://www.press.jhu.edu/.)