Taxon DRAFT Profile

Version: 0.5-DRAFT-2020_04_06 (06 April 2020)

Bioschemas profile for describing a biological taxon

If you spot any errors or omissions with this type, please file an issue in our GitHub.

Description Contributors Links

Contributors

The following people have been involved in the creation of this specification document. They are all members of the Biodiversity group.

Group Leader(s)

Franck Michel

Leyla Garcia

Other team members

Schema.org hierarchy

This Profile fits into the schema.org hierarchy as follows:

Thing > Taxon

Description

This profile aims to denote a taxon by common properties such as its scientific name, taxonomic rank and vernacular names. It is also a means to link to existing taxonomic registers where each taxon has a URI.

Summary of Changes

Changes in 0.5:

remove hasCategoryCode see issue 408

Latest profiles

Latest release: 0.6-RELEASE

Previous profiles

Previous version: 0.4-DRAFT-2019_06_24

Group	Use Cases	Cross Walk	Task & Issues	Examples	Live Deploys
Biodiversity

You can read the release version of this specification here.

Key to specification table

Schema.org properties where the Expected Types have been changed, or new (i.e., Bioschemas created) properties/types are green.

Schema.org properties/types are red.

Pending Schema.org properties/types are blue.

External (i.e., from 3rd party ontology) properties/types are black.

CD = Cardinality

View all examples

//Property: additionalType
"@context": [
      "http://schema.org",
      { "dwc": "http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/" }
  ],
"@type" : "Taxon",
"additionalType": "dwc:Taxon"



//Property: alternateName
{
    "alternateName": "Balaena albicans Muller, 1776"
}


//Property: childTaxon
"@type" : "Taxon",
"name": "Delphinapterus",
"taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q34740",  "genus" ],
"childTaxon": { 
    "@type": "Taxon",
    "name": "Delphinapterus leucas",
    "taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q7432",  "species" ]
}


//Property: name
{
    "name": "Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)"
}


//Property: parentTaxon
"parentTaxon": { 
    "@type": "Taxon",
    "@id": "WD:Q16628343",
    "name": "Delphinapterus",
    "taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q34740",  "genus" ]
}


//Property: sameAs
"sameAs": [
    "http://eol.org/pages/328541",
    "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beluga_whale",
    "http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/details/species/id/6850357",
    "http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6335"
]


//Property: taxonRank
"taxonRank": [
  "http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/TaxonRank#Species",
  "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7432",
  "species"
]



//Property: vernacularName
"dwc:vernacularName": [
    { "@language": "en", "@value": "Beluga Whale" },
    { "@language": "fr", "@value": "Bélouga" }
]

Property	Expected Type	Description	CD	Example
Marginality: Minimum.
name	Text	Schema: The name of the item. Bioschemas: Currently valid (zoological) or accepted (botanical) name for that taxon, with authorship and date information if known.	ONE	View ≪name≫ example Property ≪name≫ example `{ "name": "Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)" }`
taxonRank	PropertyValue Text URL	Schema: The taxonomic rank of this taxon given preferably as a URI from a controlled vocabulary (e.g. the ranks from TDWG TaxonRank ontology or equivalent Wikidata URIs)	MANY	View ≪taxonRank≫ example Property ≪taxonRank≫ example `"taxonRank": [ "http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/TaxonRank#Species", "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7432", "species" ]`
Marginality: Recommended.
parentTaxon	Taxon Text URL	Schema: Closest parent taxon of the taxon in question. Inverse property: childTaxon Bioschemas: Direct, most proximate higher-rank parent taxon	ONE	View ≪parentTaxon≫ example Property ≪parentTaxon≫ example `"parentTaxon": { "@type": "Taxon", "@id": "WD:Q16628343", "name": "Delphinapterus", "taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q34740", "genus" ] }`
url	URL	Schema: URL of the item. Bioschemas: Link to the webpage associated to this taxon	ONE
Marginality: Optional.
additionalType	URL	Schema: An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies in microdata syntax. This is a relationship between something and a class that the thing is in. In RDFa syntax, it is better to use the native RDFa syntax - the ‘typeof’ attribute - for multiple types. Schema.org tools may have only weaker understanding of extra types, in particular those defined externally. Bioschemas: A Taxon type from a well known vocabulary, e.g. DarwinCore http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Taxon or http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/TaxonConcept#TaxonConcept	MANY	View ≪additionalType≫ example Property ≪additionalType≫ example `"@context": [ "http://schema.org", { "dwc": "http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/" } ], "@type" : "Taxon", "additionalType": "dwc:Taxon"`
alternateName	Text	Schema: An alias for the item. Bioschemas: Scientific name, with authorship and date information if known, of a synonym of the currently valid (zoological) or accepted (botanical) name.	MANY	View ≪alternateName≫ example Property ≪alternateName≫ example `{ "alternateName": "Balaena albicans Muller, 1776" }`
childTaxon	Taxon Text URL	Schema: Closest child taxa of the taxon in question. Inverse property: parentTaxon Bioschemas: Direct, most proximate lower-rank child taxa	MANY	View ≪childTaxon≫ example Property ≪childTaxon≫ example `"@type" : "Taxon", "name": "Delphinapterus", "taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q34740", "genus" ], "childTaxon": { "@type": "Taxon", "name": "Delphinapterus leucas", "taxonRank" : [ "WD:Q7432", "species" ] }`
sameAs	URL	Schema: URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item’s identity. E.g. the URL of the item’s Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry, or official website. Bioschemas: URL of third-party webpages describing the same taxon	MANY	View ≪sameAs≫ example Property ≪sameAs≫ example `"sameAs": [ "http://eol.org/pages/328541", "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beluga_whale", "http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/details/species/id/6850357", "http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6335" ]`
vernacularName	Text	Bioschemas: A vernacular (common) name of the taxon	MANY	View ≪vernacularName≫ example Property ≪vernacularName≫ example `"dwc:vernacularName": [ { "@language": "en", "@value": "Beluga Whale" }, { "@language": "fr", "@value": "Bélouga" } ]`