In No Man's Sky planets and animals are found by the community and registered centrally. Is there a system such as an interstellar map for planets, or a "pokedex" for discovered animals by the community, so that I can view them and possibly plot a course for them?
Similarly, is it possible to view which animals I will encounter on a planet before landing on it?
There is currently no online list available to the public - based on countless efforts to find one.
However, we do know that the Hello Games team knows exactly what everyone has discovered and named. This could mean that eventually the Hello Games team will release either an API to retrieve information from their database to create a list of discovered galaxies, planets, moons, animals, plants etc. OR they will be making one themselves (based on the link, my best bet is they are already making a website or app of some sort).
YET, just because they do know what everyone has discovered, does not mean they want to share this information. I don't know how Sean's mind works, eh.
(Sean if you're reading this make it happen please..)
The animal catalog, I'm not seeing one. You can see what discoveries you've made, in the interstellar map, to access it you have to be in space, and then press M or dpad down.
From the galactic map you can then scan for discoveries, which will list systems you've already discovered, however it will not list the animal species on the planets in those systems.
Also, be aware there are some issues with the galactic scan, as documented in this answer.
My Suggestion to Hello Games
If I were Sean I'd have all of the uploads be automatically filling out wiki pages. Using a tree structure it could be easily organized. If they included gps cordinates (or however you'd measure location of planets) they could then build a web browser map using the wikiverse platform. Making all discoveries searchable, and easy to navigate. Eventually allowing you to search for a friend and add a waypoint on one of their galaxies.
