Decide whether we want subranks in the backbones higher classification

17673
Reporter: mdoering
Type: Task
Summary: Decide whether we want subranks in the backbones higher classification
Priority: Critical
Status: Open
Created: 2015-07-09 13:07:57.412
Updated: 2017-09-08 12:38:16.91
        
Description: The current backbone only has the major Linnean ranks for the higher classification: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus. Many important taxa are considered at subrank level though and thus get lost in our current backbone. For example vetebrates are considered a subphylum and apparently even Aves is considered a subclass in newer taxonomies such as Ruggiero that the CoL is adapting: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119248

It would be best if the backbone would include subkingom, subphylum and subclass to be aware of those classifications]]>
    

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Comment: Radiolaria is another frequently encountered group
Created: 2015-07-09 13:11:30.721
Updated: 2015-07-09 13:11:30.721

Author: trobertson@gbif.org
Created: 2015-07-09 13:11:30.74
Updated: 2015-07-09 13:11:30.74
        
The bigger issue is that we generalise all manner of things by Linnaean ranks (e.g. maps and all the country reporting snapshots for example) and a change that moves something like Aves to a subclass will mean we can't do basic things like show a map of birds without quite some invasive work.



    

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Comment: The current backbone actually already has non linnean higher ranks, there are 356 superfamilies, see PF-2285
Created: 2015-12-23 11:11:23.61
Updated: 2015-12-23 11:11:23.61

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Comment: We also have metrics/map issues already with infraspecific synonyms for similar reasons: POR-1492
Created: 2015-12-23 11:13:41.974
Updated: 2015-12-23 11:13:41.974

Author: rdmpage
Comment: What about indexing occurrences by path in taxonomy? CouchDB allows arrays as keys, could also use strings (equivalent to LIKE queries in SQL). More flexible than relying on fixed ranks.
Created: 2015-12-23 12:36:08.217
Updated: 2015-12-23 12:36:08.217

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Created: 2017-04-19 12:03:41.797
Updated: 2017-04-19 12:03:41.797
        
Marsupials are also treated as a sub- or infraclass and fall through our classification.
CoL now has plans to make use of the new Ruggiero classification with a subclass Aves in the 2017 annual edition at the end of 2016
    

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Created: 2017-06-14 09:01:12.665
Updated: 2017-06-14 09:01:22.538
        
Another one encountered in OBIS is superorder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizocephala
https://demo.gbif.org/occurrence/11026013
    

Author: rdmpage
Comment: Ranks between genus and species, such as subgenus should also be considered. There are some groups where the classification makes extensive use of these, including some medically important taxa (eg., mosquitoes). In general subgenera are a huge pain, but if researchers expect them then it would be nice to handle them.
Created: 2017-06-14 09:22:35.905
Updated: 2017-06-14 09:22:35.905

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Comment: Suborder Auchenorrhyncha is missing in the GBIF backbone
Created: 2017-09-08 12:38:16.91
Updated: 2017-09-08 12:38:16.91