A catalogue of animals and the molecules they invented
Every animal is a Che-Mystery.
For half a billion years animals have been running chemistry experiments. A lizard's venom became a diabetes drug. A jellyfish lit up the inside of living cells. We collect those stories, one species at a time.
What this is
The makes . People turned it into .
- Step 1
Meet the animal
Where it lives, how it hunts or hides, and why it needed chemistry to survive.
- Step 2
Zoom to the molecule
From habitat to tissue to a single molecule, twelve orders of magnitude down.
- Step 3
See what we did with it
The medicine, the lab tool or the survival trick that science borrowed.
Dive
Zoom from a habitat down to one molecule.
PlayQuiz
Fifteen seconds a question. Build a combo.
Our goalWhy it matters
Why the animals that help us need help too.
Search10,000 species
Every animal on file, with its Red List status.
Explore
Dive from habitat to molecule
- The molecule
- What kind of molecule
- What people did with it
Our goal
Our goal
Tell the molecule story of every animal that has one, and help keep those animals alive.
Why Zoolecule exists
Behind many medicines stands an animal.
A lizard, a snail, a frog or a worm solved a chemical problem long before people did. Their solutions became diabetes drugs, blood thinners, painkillers, safety tests for medicines and tools that changed biology.
Most people never hear these stories, and the animals behind them rarely get the credit. Zoolecule collects them in one place, so that anyone can follow a species from where it lives down to the molecule it makes, and see what that molecule has done for us.
Where the idea came from
One animal, seen through three lenses.
Zoolecule was started by Varun Nikam. He studied zoology first, then biochemistry, and is now doing a master's degree in organismic and molecular biodiversity.
Each of those fields looks at the same animal from a different distance. Zoology asks how it lives. Biochemistry asks what its molecules do. Biodiversity asks whether it will still be here tomorrow, and what disappears if it is not. Zoolecule is what you see when you look through all three at once.
Try the three lenses
The zoologist sees
The biochemist sees
The biodiversity researcher sees
Why the animals need saving too
They help keep us healthy. We have to help keep them alive.
Across all 1,135,965 animal species in the GBIF download behind this site, about 93% have never been assessed for the Red List. We do not know how most animals are doing, and we know the chemistry of even fewer.
A species that dies out takes every molecule it ever made with it, including the ones nobody has studied yet. And no animal survives alone: a cone snail needs a living reef, a poison frog needs its forest and the insects it eats, a horseshoe crab needs quiet beaches to spawn on. Protecting the chemistry means protecting the whole web of life around it.
The helpers that are already in trouble. Select one to read its story.
Why it matters
Lose the species, lose the molecule.
Select an animal to remove it from the world, then watch what leaves the shelf with it.
12
of 12 discoveries still on the shelf
How we will get there
Story by story, species by species.
1,135,965
animal species named in our GBIF download
10,000
on file in the database
12
stories told so far
- Checked against sources. Every story will carry its references.
- Written for everyone. No degree needed to follow a species from its habitat to its molecule.
- On the side of the animals. Each entry shows the Red List status, so the cost of losing a species stays in view.
Catalogue
100 specimens and their molecules
Species database
10,000 animal species on file
The 10,000 animal species with the most records on GBIF, the open biodiversity database, plus the 100 specimens with a molecule story. Classification follows the Catalogue of Life. Red List codes come from the same download.
| Species | Class | Order | Family | Red List | GBIF records |
|---|
Red List: LC least concern · NT near threatened · VU vulnerable · EN endangered · CR critically endangered · EX extinct · DD data deficient · NE not evaluated
Quiz
Who made that molecule?
Daily score
Keep your streak alive
Each correct quiz answer earns 10 points, plus up to 20 bonus points for a run of correct answers. Score on back-to-back days to build a streak. The daily goal is 50 points.
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Top players
The leaderboard shows once scores are saved to an account.
Newsletter
Three ways this site can pay for itself
One specimen a week
Subscribe to our newsletter: one species, one molecule and one reason it matters, every week in your inbox.
Specimen prints
Each catalogue entry as a poster: the animal, the scale ruler and the molecule on one sheet. Sold print-on-demand, so no stock to hold.
PlannedStudy decks
Flashcard sets and revision sheets for biology students: toxins and ion channels, extremophile proteins, drugs from nature.
Planned