PBDB Data Service: Single taxon

Return information about the taxonomic name matching the specified string. You may also use the alias name for this parameter. If more than one name matches, the one with the largest number of occurrences in the database will be returned. The characters . % _ may be used as wildcards. If no taxonomic name matches the value of this parameter, you will get an HTTP 404 (Not Found) response.

Return information about the taxonomic name corresponding to the specified identifier. You may also use the alias id for this parameter. If the value is syntactically correct but does not correspond to any taxonomic name in the database, you will get an HTTP 404 (Not Found) response. The value can have any of the following forms:

You may not specify both taxon_name and taxon_id in the same query.

As indicated above, if you provide a purely numeric value for the taxon_id parameter, you can also include this parameter to specify that the exact matching taxonomic name variant should be returned. Identifiers of the form var:nnn or txn:nnn are not affected by this parameter. This parameter is deprecated, and will be removed in the next version of the data service.

This parameter indicates that name lookup should be done on common names instead of (or in addition to) scientific names. The value should be one or more two-character language codes as a comma-separated list, indicating which language(s) to match. For example:

• /data1.2/taxa/single.json?taxon_name=whale&common=EN

This parameter is used to select additional blocks of information to be returned along with the basic record for each taxon. Its value should be one or more of the following, separated by commas:

A unique identifier for this taxonomic name

A unique identifier for the selected variant of this taxonomic name. By default, this is the variant currently accepted as most correct.

The type of this object: txn for a taxon.

This field will be empty for most records. Otherwise, it will contain one or more of the following letters:

The rank of this taxon, ranging from subspecies up to kingdom

The scientific name of this taxon

The attribution (author and year) of this taxonomic name

The common (vernacular) name of this taxon, if any

If this name is either a junior synonym or is invalid for some reason, this field gives the reason. The fields accepted_no and accepted_name then specify the name that should be used instead.

The taxonomic status of this name, in the Darwin Core vocabulary. This field only appears if that vocabulary is selected.

The nomenclatural status of this name, in the Darwin Core vocabulary. This field only appears if that vocabulary is selected.

If this name is either a junior synonym or an invalid name, this field gives the identifier of the accepted name to be used in its place. Otherwise, its value will be the same as orig_no. In the compact vocabulary, this field will be omitted in that case.

If accepted_no is different from orig_no, this field gives the rank of the accepted name. Otherwise, its value will be the same as taxon_rank. In the compact voabulary, this field will be omitted in that case.

If accepted_no is different from orig_no, this field gives the accepted name. Otherwise, its value will be the same as taxon_name. In the compact vocabulary, this field will be omitted in that case.

The identifier of the parent taxon, or of its senior synonym if there is one. This field and those following are only available if the classification of this taxon is known to the database.

The name of the parent taxon, or of its senior synonym if there is one.

The identifier of the immediate parent taxon, even if it is a junior synonym.

The name of the immediate parent taxon, even if it is a junior synonym.

The identifier of a taxon from the result set containing this one, which may or may not be the parent. This field will only appear in the result of the occs/taxa operation, where no base taxon is specified. The taxa reported in this case are the "classical" ranks, rather than the full taxonomic hierarcy.

The author(s) of the reference from which this name was entered. Note that the author of the name itself may be different if the reference is a secondary source.

The year of publication of the reference from which this name was entered. Note that the publication year of the name itself may be different if the reference is a secondary source.

The identifier of the reference from which this name was entered.

True if this taxon is extant on earth today, false if not, not present if unrecorded

The number of fossil occurrences in this database that are identified as belonging to this taxon or any of its subtaxa.

The early age bound for the first appearance of this taxon in the database

The late age bound for the first appearance of this taxon in the database

The early age bound for the last appearance of this taxon in the database

The late age bound for the last appearance of this taxon in the database

The name of the interval in which this taxon first appears, or the start of its range.

The name of the interval in which this taxon last appears, if different from early_interval.

The total number of taxa in the database that are contained within this taxon, including itself

The total number of extant taxa in the database that are contained within this taxon, including itself

The name of the phylum in which this taxon is classified

The identifier of the phylum in which this taxon is classified. This is only included with the block classext.

The name of the class in which this taxon is classified

The identifier of the class in which this taxon is classified. This is only included with the block classext.

The name of the order in which this taxon is classified

The identifier of the order in which this occurrence is classified. This is only included with the block classext.

The name of the family in which this taxon is classified

The identifier of the family in which this occurrence is classified. This is only included with the block classext.

The name of the genus in which this taxon is classified. A genus may be listed as occurring in a different genus if it is a junior synonym; a species may be listed as occurring in a different genus than its name would indicate if its genus is synonymized but no synonymy opinion has been entered for the species.

The identifier of the genus in which this occurrence is classified. This is only included with the block classext.

The identifier of the subgenus in which this occurrence is classified, if any. This is only included with the block classext.

The name of the type taxon for this taxon, if known.

The identifier of the type taxon for this taxon, if known.

The number of orders within this taxon. For lists of taxa derived from a set of occurrences, this will be the number of orders that appear within that set. Otherwise, this will be the total number of orders within this taxon that are known to the database.

The number of families within this taxon, according to the same rules as n_orders above.

The number of genera within this taxon, according to the same rules as n_orders above.

The number of species within this taxon, according to the same rules as n_orders above.

The general environment or environments in which this life form is found. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon from which the environment information is inherited.

Whether the organism is motile, attached and/or epibiont, and its mode of locomotion if any. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the motility information was set. The taphonomy and ecospace information are inherited from parent taxa unless specific values are set.

The general life mode and locality of this organism. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the life habit information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the ecospace block is also included.

The degree of vision possessed by this organism. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the vision information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the ecospace block is also included.

The general diet or feeding mode of this organism. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the diet information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the ecospace block is also included.

The mode of reproduction of this organism. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the reproduction information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the ecospace block is also included.

Briefly describes the ontogeny of this organism. See ecotaph vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the ontogeny information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the ecospace block is also included.

Additional remarks about the ecospace, if any.

The composition of the skeletal parts of this organism. See taphonomy vocabulary.

An indication of the internal skeletal architecture. See taphonomy vocabulary.

An indication of the relative thickness of the skeleton. See taphonomy vocabulary.

An indication of the skeletal reinforcement, if any. See taphonomy vocabulary.

Specifies the taxon for which the taphonomy information was set. See motility_basis above. These fields are only included if the otaph block is also included.

The name of the parent taxon or its senior synonym if any

The rank of the parent taxon or its senior synonym if any

The name of the immediate parent taxon if it is a junior synonym

The identifier of the kingdom in which this taxon occurs

The name of the kingdom in which this taxon occurs

The identifier of the phylum in which this taxon occurs

The name of the phylum in which this taxon occurs

The number of phyla within this taxon

The identifier of the class in which this taxon occurs

The name of the class in which this taxon occurs

The number of classes within this taxon

The identifier of the order in which this taxon occurs

The name of the order in which this taxon occurs

The number of orders within this taxon

The identifier of the family in which this taxon occurs

The name of the family in which this taxon occurs

The number of families within this taxon

The number of genera within this taxon

The immediate children of this taxonomic concept, if any

A list of the phyla within this taxonomic concept

A list of the classes within this taxonomic concept

A list of the orders within this taxonomic concept

A list of the families within this taxonomic concept

A list of the genera within this taxonomic concept

A list of the subgenera within this taxonomic concept

A list of the species within this taxonomic concept

A list of the subspecies within this taxonomic concept

This number gives the taxon's position in a preorder traversal of the taxonomic tree.

This number greater than or equal to the maximum of the sequence numbers of all of this taxon's subtaxa, and less than the sequence of any succeeding taxon in the sequence. You can use this, along with lft, to determine subtaxon relationships. If the pair lft,rgt for taxon <A> is bracketed by the pair lft,rgt for taxon <B>, then A is a subtaxon of B.

If this value is non-zero, you can use it to construct image URLs using taxa/thumb and taxa/icon.

The primary reference associated with this record (as formatted text)

The identifier of the person who authorized the entry of this record

The identifier of the person who actually entered this record.

The identifier of the person who last modified this record, if it has been modified.

The name of the person who authorized the entry of this record

The name of the person who actually entered this record

The name of the person who last modified this record, if it has been modified.

The date and time at which this record was created.

The date and time at which this record was last modified.

JSON format

Text formats

Text formats

Text formats

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.

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.