The original inspiration for this site came during the writing of a scientific paper, “Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation“, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013. Seeing a need for more widely accessible maps of where the many species on our planet live, the BiodiveristyMapping.org site was born. The first maps were for salamanders and other amphibians, created while sitting in the Macon County Public Library in Franklin, NC. That also happens to be in the center of global salamander diversity!

Maps have been developed by Clinton Jenkins, now based at Florida International University in the Department of Earth and Environment. Advice and suggestions came from many colleagues, including Joe Sexton (terraPulse), Rob Dunn (NCSU), Stuart Pimm (Duke University), Kyle Van Houtan (Monterey Bay Aquarium), Lucas Joppa (Microsoft Research), Félix Pharand-Deschenes (Globaïa), and Nick Haddad (Michigan State University). Producing the biodiversity maps would not have been possible without the enormous efforts contributed to the IUCN, NatureServe, BirdLife International, and the USGS in their ongoing efforts to map the individual distributions of the world’s species.

Questions or suggestions can be directed to Clinton.Jenkins@gmail.com.