The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms.

[2] The Catalogue currently compiles data from 165 peer-reviewed taxonomic databases that are maintained by specialist institutions around the world.

As of September 2022,[update] the COL Checklist lists 2,067,951[3] of the world's 2.2m extant species known to taxonomists on the planet at present time.

The Catalogue of Life employs a simple data structure to provide information on synonymy, grouping within a taxonomic hierarchy, common names, distribution and ecological environment.

[14] In 2015, an expert panel presented a consensus hierarchical classification of life[15] which included some sectors not yet represented in the published Catalogue.