MorphoBank is web application for conducting phylogenetics or cladistics research on morphology. It enables teams of scientists who use anatomy to study the Tree of Life (phylogeny) to work over the web - in real time - and to do research they could not easily do using desktop programs alone. MorphoBank displays - over the web - dynamic phylogenetic matrices of morphological characters with labeled images demonstrating homology statements, and implements the data editing functions of widely used desktop programs (e.g., Mesquite, Nexus Data Editor) over the web in a password protected environment. It is an environment for virtual collaboration by teams of researchers building phylogenetic matrices with affiliated image data. MorphoBank can also draw on images in existing 2D and 3D digital libraries.
If a scientist has images that are not deposited in other digital libraries, MorphoBank uses its database to store images (including films and CT scans) submitted by scientists, and allows contributors to label anatomical structures on the images. MorphoBank records information on the author of the submission, related publications, critical commentary and species names.
Developed in the laboratory of Maureen O’Leary at Stony Brook University with grants from the National Science Foundation, in 2021 MorphoBank transitioned to a permanent home at Phoenix Bioinformatics.
