Biologist, need help creating dynamic & interactive biology tool.

Hello,

I am a biologist and I am interested in making an interactive animal kingdom tree using excel. I know there might be better tools to accomplish this, however my department head made it very clear that he needs it be an excel workbook. Here is how I would like it to work:

- In one column there is a variety of animal classes such as mammals, birds, fish, etc.
- Clicking on one of these animal class buttons/cells will bring up a brief list of corresponding animals. For example, clicking on fish will bring up a list next to it (it MUST be on the same spreadsheet) that includes salmon, tuna, bass, etc.).
-Clicking a specific species of animal on this adjacent list will bring up an image next to it of the corresponding image of the animal. For example, clicking "Tuna" will pull up an image of a tuna next to it (I would like to have the images stored on the workbook, perhaps in different spreadsheets).

Another problem I am facing is that the end product must be somewhat protected, for example, I don't want end-users to be able to select cells.

I tried using slicers but that didn't turn out too well. I'm currently trying buttons with limited success...

I have included a process diagram of what I am envisioning. Ideally I would like the second column which contains examples to change depending on which class from the previous column is selected. I would also like the image(s) hidden by default until a particular example is selected. I'm ok with having a reset button, but I would really like this tool to be dynamic - allowing you to click through multiple classes/examples without having to manually reset the page each time.

http://imgur.com/hswTCKW

I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks!

I don't think a combo box is what I am looking for. I would like the interface to function more or less like the diagram I provided in my original post.

http://imgur.com/hswTCKW

Once clicked on, I would like all of the paths for a given class visually available for as long as the class is selected for. I would also like the image to be displayed next to the example column once selected (I would prefer not to have a hyperlink).

I want this tool to be visually stimulating, dynamic, intuitive, and interactive - and I don't think cascading combo boxes will allow me to achieve this.