University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

I\'m trying to get my head around the data model used by
[ZooBank](http://zoobank.org) to store taxonomic names. To do this,
I\'ve built a graph for the species *Belonoperca pylei* described by
Baldwin & Smith described in:  

> Baldwin, C. C., & Smith, W. L. (1998). Belonoperca pylei, a new
> species of seabass (Teleostei: Serranidae: Epinephelinae:
> Diploprionini) from the cook islands with comments on relationships
> among diploprionins. Ichthyological Research, 45(4), 325--339.
> [doi:10.1007/BF02725185](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02725185)

  
After extracting some data from [ZooBank API](http://zoobank.org/Api) I
created a DOT file connecting the various \"taxon name usages\"
associated with *Belonoperca pylei* and constructed a graph using
GraphViz:  
![Zoobank](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2SVILpESQB4/ULsg9qO44lI/AAAAAAAACTE/bFe-Iy6-bQk/zoobank.png?imgmax=800 "zoobank.png"){style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
border="0" width="550" height="162"}  
You can grab the DOT file [here](https://gist.github.com/4160434), and a
bigger version of the image is on
[Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/85456381@N00/8237656364). I\'ve
labelled taxon names and references with plain text as well as the UUIDs
that serve as identifiers in ZooBank. (Update: the original diagram had
*Belonoperca pylei* Baldwin & Smith, 1998 *sensu* Eschmeyer
\[9F53EF10-30EE-4445-A071-6112D998B09B\] in the wrong place, which I\'ve
now fixed.)  
  
This is a fairly simple case of a single species, but it\'s already
starting to look a tad complicated. We have *Belonoperca pylei* Baldwin
& Smith, 1998 linked to its original description
([doi:10.1007/BF02725185](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02725185)) and to
the genus *Belonoperca* Fowler & Bean, 1930 (linked to its original
publication <http://biostor.org/reference/105997>) as interpreted by
(\"sensu\") Baldwin & Smith, 1998. *Belonoperca* Fowler & Bean 1930
sensu Baldwin & Smith 1998 is linked to the original use of that genus
(i.e., *Belonoperca* Fowler & Bean, 1930). Then we have the species
*Belonoperca pylei* Baldwin & Smith, 1998 as understood in Eschmeyer\'s
2004 checklist.  
  
Notice that each usage of a taxon name gets linked back to a previous
usage, and names are linked to higher names in a taxonomic hierarchy.
When the species *Belonoperca pylei* was described it was placed in the
genus *Belonoperca*, when *Belonoperca* was described it was placed in
the family Serranidae, and so on.


I'm trying to get my head around the data model used by ZooBank to store taxonomic names. To do this, I've built a graph for the species
<em>
 Belonoperca pylei
</em>
described by Baldwin &amp;

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

ZooBank data model