New Tools for Managing Taxon- and Specimen-based Morphological Data

Delta(Description Language For Taxonomy)是一个广泛使用的程序，用于管理分类学的形态数据。分类学是生物学的一个基本部分，涉及对地球生物区系的分类。编目和了解生物多样性有赖于良好的分类学。Delta多年来不断发展壮大，但也出现了反映可伸缩性、数据格式一致性和缺乏用户友好性的问题。Delta将从头开始重新编制，利用现有系统的最佳特点以及数据管理和功能的新特点。这样的工具已经被社区确定为共享关于分类特征的信息所必需的。该软件将通过网络分发。除了简化化石和活分类群形态数据的收集、标准化和分布外，该软件还将成为分类学的教学工具。

DELTA (Description Language for Taxonomy) is a widely used program written to manage morphological data for taxonomy. Taxonomy is a basic part of biology, involving the classification of the Earth's biota. Cataloging and understanding biodiversity is dependent on good taxonomy. DELTA has grown through the years but has also developed problems reflecting scalability, data format consistency, and a lack of user-friendliness. DELTA will be reworked from scratch, with the best features of the present system plus new features of data management and functionality. Such tools have been identified by the community as necessary for sharing information about taxonomic characters. The software will be distributed through the web. In addition to streamlining the gathering, standardizing and distribution of morphological data on fossil and living taxa, the software will be a teaching tool for systematics.