We started in 2023 what will a long-term project aiming at incorporating into FishBase all of Dean’s A Bibliography of Fishes (DaBoF), a monumental work led by Bashford Dean (1916-1923), which compiled essentially all the ichthyological literature from Aristotle to 1916, and more up to 1922. Starting with the OCR version published by the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), we aim at correcting the entries of DaBoF which the BHL’s OCR did not properly capture, adding links, and formatting its references to match the format used in the FishBase, which ultimately will lead all of the DaBoF being fully integrated therein.

In total, we estimate that there are 32,000 bibliographical references between 1758 and 1922, plus the pre-Linnaean ones.

We would appreciate volunteers to help FishBase verifying the OCR of the remaining 30,000+ references. Please read the FB Book chapter and the Box 1, describing how you can help.

Current status of the list in FishBase:

• References before 1920 that we had previously entered;
• List of Bleeker’s publications extracted from DaBoF, Vol.1, and the Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes (ECoF). See the list of Bleeker’s publications in FishBase.
• Additional references authored as Anonymous in Vol. 3;
• References about sturgeons;
• References related to the fish respiration.
• The 4,000 references in the extension in Vol. 3 have been corrected. After elimination of the references already in FishBase, will be uploaded in the update April 2025.

What is coming:

In preparation:
• The pre-Linnaean literature.