Arctos Handbook

Identifications

Determinations, or “identifications” (IDs), apply taxonomic terms to cataloged objects. In other words, determinations are not necessarily just taxonomic terms. Information about taxonomic names (which are used to compose determinations) is in Taxonomy.

A taxonomic determination is comprised of:

Arctos maintains a history of determinations for each cataloged object. Cataloged objects are therefore reidentified by adding a new determination and retaining prior determination(s) either as “unaccepted” (identification order = 0), “equally accepted” (identification order =1) or “less accepted” ( identification ordere = 2 or above). This means that there can be more than one accepted determination, but not necessarily that prior identifications are wrong. In fact, complimentary IDs by experts or by alternative methods enhance the value of the cataloged object.

Scientific Name

There is a distinction between Scientific Name here in determinations, as opposed to Scientific Name as it is used in the taxonomy table. The latter is a term from a table serving as a taxonomic look-up (or authority). Here, it is a character string applied to a cataloged object by a determiner, though it uses terms from the look-up table to create such strings. Nevertheless, in the simplest and commonest case (Determination Formula= “A”), they are identical. (Some forms display a third related term called Display Name, which is merely a specific formatting of the data in Taxonomy.) The explanation of Determination Formula (immediately below) is illustrative.

Determination Formula

Identification . Taxa_Formula VARCHAR2(25) not null

A determination can contain more than one taxon, possibly in conjunction with modifiers. Taxa are combined with each other, or with modifiers, according to a formula. For example:

Identification . Scientific_Name Formula Taxonomy . Scientific_Name(s)
Sorex cinereus one taxon (A) A = Sorex cinereus
Sorex cinereus ? taxon (A) + “?” A = Sorex cinereus
Sorex cinereus or Sorex ugyunak A “or” B A = Sorex cinereus
    B = Sorex ugyunak
Canis latrans x Canis lupus familiaris A “X” B A = Canis latrans
    B = Canis lupus familiaris

More formulae are documented in the vocabulary-control table. Bulkloader taxa guidelines are here.

You can pick a formula from the editing screen for determinations. You do not need to designate a formula for data entry if you intend a simple one-taxon determination (formula “A”), and the bulkloader will recognize and appropriately parse construction.

“A {string}” Formula

The “A {string}” formula links nonformulaic identifications to taxa, thereby allowing infinite flexibility in applying identifications to cataloged objects (if you can type it in fewer than 255 UTF16 characters, it’s “valid”) while retaining a link to formal taxonomy (e.g., things that have appeared in the reviewed literature) and thereby facilitating the discovery of informal data through formal taxa (including namestrings, “higher taxonomy” and other metadata, relationships, and common names).

The “taxon variables” as used in constructing taxon names exist for the purposes of ordering or formulating complex names, and as such there exist no restrictions on how many ‘A’s can exist for an identification. The following table is illustrative.

Identification Taxa Why
Sorex n. sp. “funnyfeet” Sorex “Working names” (eg, informal identifiers not yet published as formal names) are perhaps the most common usage of the ‘A {string}’ formula
Iron-rich mudstone unidentifiable While non-Linnean taxonomies are possbile in Arctos, they do not exist for all material. In this case, a mineral sample has no formal taxonomy.
Birchbark basket with moosehide lacings Alces alces Artifact collections identify objects using ethnological terminology, but the items are often made from biological material. Adding linkages to Linnean taxonomy makes the material discoverable by attributes of those taxa. With these linkages, a biologist might locate this item and request subsamples of the (often pre-industrial) biological components.

Identification Order

A record may carry any number of identifications which may be in any order. (Order is currently confined to integers between zero and ten.) Order zero is generally treated as “unaccepted” in the UI; all other values are “accepted.” Order is non-unique; multiple determinations may be ranked 0 (eg if they are later determined to be incorrect), or multiple determinations may be ranked ‘1’ (=”most preferred”) - for example, if they consider different aspects of a cultural item (parka and -Gulo_).

This replaces the previous system of accepted/unaccepted and for the purposes of retaining that, 0 = unaccepted and 1 = accepted

BUT

you can also assign any number above 1 to mean accepted, but not as much as 1.

See this for one explanation of one way this is used.

You can also have more than one order = 1 to indicate that there are more than one accepted identification related to the catalog record. This is important for cultural and geological collections that may need to have more than one accepted identification on a record (a fossil in a bead of amber for example). It might also be used in biological collections when several different determiners have reached the same conclusion about the identification assigned to a biological individual.

Determined Date

Identification . Made_Date VARCHAR2(22) null

ISO8601 date-type. The chronological order of determinations may be the most critical issue.

Sensu Publication

Identification . Publication_ID NUMBER(22) null

Signifies that a determination is made in the sense of (sensu) a particular publication. This may be used both in the taxonomic sense (“this cataloged object fits in with Some Author’s concept of Aus bus”) and as supporting documentation (“We’ve determined this to be Aus bus using the methods provided by Some Author”).

Taxon Concept

As well as specifying a name during an identification, an (optional) link can be made to a particular taxonomic concept: a ‘name plus its accordingTo’. This is very valuable when a name has changed its circumscription during subsequent revisions. See the Taxonomic Concepts section of the Taxonomy page for more background.

To enter a taxon concept in the Identification pane, type part of the taxon concept’s label and hit TAB, to pull up a pop-up window of options. The label is of the form <i>name</i> author <i>sensu</i> ref.

Remarks

Identification . Identification_Remarks VARCHAR2(4000) null

Remarks can elaborate or clarify any signficant aspect of a determination. This is a good place for recording the verbatim form of a Determined Date if it was not recorded as an exact day.

Determiner

Identification_Agent . Agent_ID NUMBER(22) not null

Determiners are the agent (or agents, usually a person) who identified the cataloged object. More than one agent can be entered. The order in which such co-determiners are displayed is set in the form by the order in which they were added to the determination. To change the displayed order, drag rows.

Identification Attributes

Identification attributes allow adding any type of metadata to identifications.

Nature of ID

Identification . Nature_Of_ID VARCHAR2(30) not null

The basis of the identification. Vocabulary is defined in, and controlled by, a code table.

This concept is undergoing modification. Please see Issue 515 for additional guidance.

Catalog Record Search contains a dropdown list with the following values. All searches are case-insensitive. Examples are fictitious and incomplete.

Instructions for doing specifc tasks related to Identifications in Arctos (please note that “under construction” icons on pages indicate that the documentation may be incomplete or out-of-date):

See also, Taxonomy

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last edited 19 December 2024