The gateway to Opiliones taxonomic literature
Curated and maintained by AB Kury (Museu Nacional/UFRJ)
Taxonomic knowledge is built one paper at a time — but access to those papers can be a challenge.
OmniPaper is a long-term effort to make the taxonomic heritage of Opiliones freely available, collecting, scanning, and sharing the very documents that shaped our understanding of these arachnids.
The "eras" used in OmniPaper are chronological but flexible cultural-scientific periods centered around the active influence of key authors. They reflect the intellectual climate during a researcher’s most productive phase, rather than their full lifespan. Some eras may overlap, as scientific styles and influences often coexist. Figures like Martens even transcend their own era due to exceptional longevity and sustained relevance. These designations help situate even minor authors within their broader scientific context.
Kury, A.B. (2003 onwards) OmniPaper — The gateway to Opiliones taxonomic literature.
Curated and maintained by AB Kury (Museu Nacional/UFRJ).
Available online at:
http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/mndi/Aracnologia/pdfliteratura/pdfs%20opiliones.htm
Taxonomic papers are the basic building blocks for the knowledge of a group of organisms.
One of the major hindrances for students starting to research taxonomy of a group is literature. Needed information may be scattered among hundreds of papers issued by the most varied publishers worldwide.
OmniPaper aims to work as THE bibliographical resource for systematics of Opiliones on the Internet by preparing PDF files of taxonomic papers on Opiliones and distributing them freely to everyone, thus progressing the study of these arachnids.
Fig. 1. Adriano Kury looking for literature in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Haus Potsdamer Straße. Photo by Ian Kury, May 2009.
(a) OmniPaper is manually and painstakingly organized by AB Kury. Still, a number of wonderful people have given their time and support in many ways, and I wholeheartedly thank them for helping bring this project to life. (More detailed credits appear on each author's page.)
Luis Eduardo Acosta, Miguel-Angel Alonso-Zarazaga, Anda Babalean, Renner Baptista, Vera Barbosa, Janet Beccaloni, Pavel Bezděčka, Jan Bezdek, Theo Blick, Ann Bochnowski, Cibele Bragagnolo, Antonio Brescovit, Tom Briggs, Rupert Calvocoressi, Amazonas Chagas Jr, Aleksey Chemeris, James Cokendolpher, Pio Colmenares, László Dányi, William P. Davis, Emmanuel Delfosse, Dan Dumitrescu, Jason Dunlop, Márcia Dutra, Lars Friman, Efrat Gavish-Regev, Gonzalo Giribet, Alexander Gromov, Jürgen Gruber, Nic Harrison-White, Mark Harvey, Mark Judson, Christian Komposch, Niels Peder Kristensen, Matjaž Kuntner, Ian S. Kury, Milena S. Kury, Bernard Lebreton, Laura Leibensperger, Wei-Guang Lian, Antonio Carlos de Lima, Arno Lise, Dmitri Logunov, Mariana Lucas, Juliana Machado, Emilio Maury, Cláudia Melo, Amanda Mendes, Plamen Mitov, Thiago Moreira, Sabrina Outeda-Jorge, Abel Pérez, Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha, Norman Platnick, Antoni Rafalski, Cristina Rheims, Santiago Rompani, Wolfgang Roth, Vlastimil Rùžička, Axel Schönhofer, Nikolaj Scharff, Nataly Snegovaya, Daniele R. Souza, Wojciech Staręga, Ingvar Stol, Christopher Taylor, Konrad Thaler, Eleonora Trajano, Nobuo Tsurusaki, Polly Tucker, Stella Turk, András Varga, Eduardo Vasconcelos, Sebastian Vélez, Osvaldo Villarreal, Eduardo Wienskoski and Chao Zhang.
Fig. 2. Amanda Mendes & Thiago Moreira researching literature at the Museu Nacional, Rio. Photo by A.B. Kury, 31 October 2008.
(b) Germany 2009: During a literature-gathering trip with my son in April–May 2009, I received invaluable help from many. Besides our generous host Jason Dunlop, I wish to thank Anja Friederichs and Hans-Ulrich Raake (Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin), Ute Kaczinski and the staff at the Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut (Müncheberg), the librarians at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the entire team at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Haus Potsdamer Straße).
(c) England/Denmark 2011: This time, my other kid joined the mission. In London, Jan Beccaloni welcomed us warmly at the BMNH and graciously supported our requests. Later in Copenhagen, we received excellent support at ZMUC thanks to my host Nikolaj Scharff.
(d) I thank Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha (IB-USP), who regularly contributes PDFs and photocopies from his travels, including materials funded by FAPESP.
(e) Axel Schönhofer (Mainz) has also consistently provided PDFs and continues to support the project in numerous ways.
(f) Special thanks to Emmanuel Delfosse and Axel Schönhofer for checking broken links.
(g) I also thank all colleagues who have sent me copies, reprints, pictures, or biographical info over the years.
(h) After my death on 18 November 2012, I resurrected. Out of curiosity, I added a visit counter on 10 February 2013 — and was stunned to see over 40 hits within hours. Clearly, OmniPaper is serving its purpose — even if it's just to snatch a few PDFs.
1. OmniPaper has already been cited in several peer-reviewed publications by professional arachnologists.
2. Worried about copyright? I'm not. This is a non-commercial, educational resource. I'm not being paid — I do it in my spare time because it matters. Projects like this deserve support, not suspicion. If you think that posting these PDFs threatens the printing industry, I suggest reconsidering your priorities. This isn't Wikipedia.
3. This is my intellectual creation. You're welcome to use and cite the material for research and teaching — that's what the internet is for. Just don't be the kind of person who grabs everything without credit.
1. Most of the content and research is by A.B. Kury (based on and greatly expanded from an early list by James Cokendolpher), using the resources of the Arachnology Lab at MNRJ, which includes the private M-L and Helia Soares libraries.
2. Some biographical or iconographic material was sourced online and is always credited, even if formal permission was not granted.