
GBIF.org topped 1 billion species occurrence records on 4 July 2018, thanks to a surge of datasets from the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage (l’Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel), which included this observation of a frilled anemone (Metridium dianthus) off Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago in the northwestern Atlantic. The record for this marine invertebrate animal is one of 150,097 gathered through BioObs (Base pour l’Inventaire des Observations Subaquatiques), a citizen science tool that enables divers to learn about the marine environment while contributing to a national inventory of underwater species.
The milestone symbolizes a major collective achievement, one made possible through the work of the GBIF network, a diverse partnership of more than 1,200 public and private organizations from 123 countries. GBIF’s global index and research infrastructure provides anyone, anywhere, with instant access to free and open data about where and when life forms occur on Earth.
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Photo description and source: Frilled anemone (Metridium dianthus). Photo by B. Guichard, Agence Française pour la Biodiversité, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0