Six karyotype databases.
Coleoptera, Diptera, Amphibia, Mammalia, Drosophila, Polyneoptera. 20,000+ records total. All static, downloadable, JSON.
The six databases
4,960 records Coleoptera The most comprehensive cytogenetic dataset for any insect order.
Beetles are the largest order of insects and the Coleoptera karyotype database is the deepest cytogenetic resource for any insect group. Every record is traceable to a primary source and verified against the original citation.
3,443 records Diptera Flies at the order level, outside the Drosophila radiation.
The Diptera database covers the full order of true flies, complementing the Drosophila-specific database. Together they give a complete picture of karyotype diversity across Diptera.
2,124 records Amphibia Frogs, salamanders, and caecilians.
The amphibian database was the first of the lab's karyotype projects to be published as a standalone resource. It covers frogs, salamanders, and caecilians and is a starting point for comparative work on sex-chromosome turnover in anamniotes.
1,440 records Mammalia A curated record of mammalian karyotypes.
The mammal database focuses on vouchered karyotype counts, with sex-chromosome state where reported. It's the substrate for several of the lab's papers on sex-chromosome and karyotype evolution in Carnivora and beyond.
1,247 records Drosophila A dedicated dataset for the fruit fly radiation.
Drosophila has its own database because no other genus is sampled as deeply in the cytogenetic literature. The dataset captures species-level variation in chromosome number and arm configuration across the genus.
823 records Polyneoptera Grasshoppers, mantises, roaches, stoneflies, and kin.
Polyneoptera karyotypes show lineage-specific chromosome evolution patterns that break the usual assumption of insect chromosomal conservatism. The database was assembled for the Proc. Roy. Soc. B paper on this pattern.
Why these exist
The gap Cytogenetic data is fundamental and hard to reach Scattered across journals, often paywalled.
How many chromosomes a species has and what kind of sex chromosomes it carries is basic information about its genome, and yet it is scattered across hundreds of journals and frequently behind paywalls. As affordable sequencing makes genome projects easier to start, this is exactly the preliminary information researchers need before they commit a sequencing budget. These databases exist to make that step fast, open, and machine-readable.