CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database

Welcome to CephBase
A database-driven web site on all living cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus)

July 27, 2004

CephBase is a dynamic relational database-driven web site that has been online since 1998. The purpose of CephBase is to provide taxonomic data, life history, distribution, images, videos, references and scientific contact information on all living species of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus) in an easy to access, user-friendly manner.

In collaboration with The Sea Around Us Project (Daniel Pauly, Principal Investigator), the species-specific occurrence records already in CephBase and geographical distributions of commercial species in the 1984 FAO Species Catalogue, have been allocated to 18 FAO Statistical Areas, 64 Large Marine Ecosystems and the Exclusive Economic Zones of about 200 maritime countries and territories. See the Biogeography page. Links to country lists are available on each species page, where applicable. Plots of the occurrence records can now be plotted with either the C-Squares Mapper (courtesy of Tony Rees, CSIRO) or the OBIS Specimen Mapper (courtesy of the Kansas Geological Survey and the Hexacorallia Project) and the distribution range maps can be viewed.

Mantle lengths are now available for almost all species and can be viewed by clicking on 'Size' in each species page.

There are currently 1642 images online, making CephBase one of the largest online repositories of invertebrate images. Each image has a caption, key words, location, photographer and other data that make them both easy to find and extremely useful. Images cover all life stages, behavior, ecology, taxonomy as well as many other aspects of these amazing animals. Please take a look at: The CephBase Image Database; Cataloging color, shape and texture for more information about why color images are so important for science.

There are 144 video clips in the video database. All are available for viewing and download.

There are now ~5900 ceph papers in our reference database, including 9 papers published in 2004, 114 papers published in 2003, 158 papers published in 2002 and 1083 references in pdf format, available for download. Currently, we are only able to sporadically enter new papers into the database. Please send reprints to Laura Koppe, CephBase Librarian, National Resource Center for Cephalopods, University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, TX 77555-1163 and email pdfs to caday @ utmb.edu. Reprints and pdfs we receive will be added to CephBase in time but there may be considerable delays. Thank you for your patience.

Other additions include: several links for cephalopods with genetic info in GenBank (a genetic sequence database from the National Center for Biotechnology Information), some life history data, more common names to include names in different languages and more predator data and occurrence records.

The CIAC Beak Database has been online since May 2002. Many thanks to Dr. Louise Allcock and Dr. Malcolm Clarke for providing the data.

In collaboration with The Cephalopod Page, CephBase has a fully searchable Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. This page was created with questions about cephalopods from people just like you. If you have any questions, please check there first.

There is also a page under the About CephBase button displaying some of the feedback that we have received. Take a look at: Feedback.

The CephBase project is supported by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and is physically located at the National Resource Center for Cephalopods at the University of Texas Medical Branch. CephBase is part of the Census of Marine Life, an international program to explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life.

James B. Wood
Catriona Day
Co-creators, CephBase