Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna (TCBF)

This is the first product of the effort of more than 500 zoologists, experts in many different groups of animals that inhabit the Brazilian territory. Since the start of the Project, in April 2015, the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna (TCBF) team has been working in an integrated manner to generate the first list of valid species found in the country. So far, we identified 124,703 taxonomically valid species; this is the first time we have a robust value for the richness of our species! The work of our experts was hard and this list would not have been possible without them. Visit the "tabs" and learn a little more about the members of our team, coordinators, authors, and institutions involved.

The list is available for consultation by anyone, but we must emphasize that due to the narrow time, not all data on each species (eg. distribution, habit of life, environment) were introduced into the system. That is GOAL 2 of our project that will be developed during 2016. This is, in fact, a great advantage of this system. It is dynamic and allows additions and corrections in real time, inclusion of newly discovered species, corrections associated with nomenclatural decisions, distribution expansion, among others. Hopefully soon, this site will provide the very latest on the taxonomic knowledge of our species.

For now, enjoy the system. Explore the number of species per taxon, search the species described by each author, look for the species known to a phylum, genus, and its authors. The remaining fields can be used in searches but will generate incomplete lists as they are still being processed by our experts.

To date, 124,703 valid species are known to Brazil, its huge majority of arthropods (about 85% with almost 94,000 species!) and chordates (about 10%). All other species are members of other invertebrate groups. In general, except for some phyla, the number of species of the large majority of phyla exceeded those disclosed in recent estimates. Special mention are the Annelida (almost 1,600 species), Mollusca (with almost 3,100 of valid species), birds (almost 3,000), bony fish (almost 4,400) and amphibians (slightly more than 1,000 species). A quick analysis shows that we are far from knowing our fauna in a comprehensive manner. Much work is still necessary for our taxonomists, many inputs will still be entered into the system. We hope that the TCBF, therefore, represents a facilitator and induces further studies to describe more effectively the animal diversity in Brazil!