This data service is capable of returning its results in a variety of formats. This capability provides great flexibility, allowing such diverse activities as:
For each query that you make on this data service, you select the format in which you want the result to be returned by adding a suffix to the URL path. Each format has a default vocabulary in which its data is expressed, but you can select a vocabulary explicitly by using the special parameter vocab. The available formats and vocabularies are as follows.
| Format | Suffix | Documentation | Description |
| JSON | .json | JSON format |
The JSON format is intended primarily to support client applications, including the PBDB Navigator. Response fields are named using compact 3-character field names. |
| Comma-separated text | .txt | Text formats |
The text formats (txt, tsv, csv) are intended primarily for researchers downloading data from the database. These downloads can easily be loaded into spreadsheets or other analysis tools. The field names are taken from the PBDB Classic interface, for compatibility with existing tools and analytical procedures. |
| Comma-separated text | .csv | Text formats |
The text formats (txt, tsv, csv) are intended primarily for researchers downloading data from the database. These downloads can easily be loaded into spreadsheets or other analysis tools. The field names are taken from the PBDB Classic interface, for compatibility with existing tools and analytical procedures. |
| Tab-separated text | .tsv | Text formats |
The text formats (txt, tsv, csv) are intended primarily for researchers downloading data from the database. These downloads can easily be loaded into spreadsheets or other analysis tools. The field names are taken from the PBDB Classic interface, for compatibility with existing tools and analytical procedures. |
| Larkin | .larkin | Larkin format |
This format is used for operations that replace the old Larkin data service, written in Javascript, that was used to provide data to the frontend website. This format is designed to produce the same output as the old data service. |
| RIS | .ris | RIS format |
The RIS format is a common format for bibliographic references. |
| PNG | .png | PNG format |
The PNG suffix is used with a few URL paths to fetch images stored in the database. |
| Vocabulary | Name | Default for | Description |
| PaleobioDB field names | pbdb | txt, csv, tsv |
The PBDB vocabulary is derived from the underlying field names and values in the database, augmented by a few new fields. For the most part any response that uses this vocabulary will be directly comparable to downloads from the PBDB Classic interface. This vocabulary is the default for text format responses. |
| Compact field names | com | json |
The Compact vocabulary is a set of 3-character field names designed to minimize the size of the response message. This is the default for JSON format responses. Some of the field values are similarly abbreviated, while others are conveyed in their entirety. For details, see the documentation for the individual response fields. |
| BibJSON field names | bibjson | |
The BibJSON vocabulary uses the field names and value formats defined for BibTeX, which is the vocabulary used for BibJSON. |
This service is provided by the Paleobiology Database, hosted by the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
If you have questions about this data service, or wish to report a bug, please contact the database administrator at admin@paleobiodb.org