Zoonomia
The Zoonomia Project is an international collaboration to discover the genomic basis of shared and specialized traits in mammals. Researchers across the scientific community are invited to use the data, and to join in harnessing the power of comparative genomics as a tool for human medicine and biodiversity conservation.
The platform functions as an open-source database for assembly, alignment, conservations scores and phylogeny files for the broader scientific community to use in advancing the health of the mammal world. It also serves as a source of discovery for the citizen scientist through the use of dynamic and interactive experiences.
The project name, Zoonomia, comes from combining Greek terms for “animal” and “governing laws” — encapsulating the goal of the project — while also referencing the Erasmus Darwin writings. Visual elements of the design draw from Darwin era etchings and abstractions of the genome.
The heart of Zoonomia is the Mammalian Tree, comprised of 240 mammalian species. The user can explore each one using its interactive features or filtering from a color delineated list of metrics, and the researcher can target a specific species to access the data.
Creative coding brings graphic elements to life in a landing page that exploits the use of motion to overview the project highlights for the first-time user experience.
