Edit or Add an identification to a specimen record. A specimen record can hold multiple identifications and will display any previous identifications as a part of the specimen’s determination history. Identifications can include valid and invalid nomenclature, as well as an evolving trail of identifications as a specimen is processed and/or examined by experts (e.g., an ant may only be identified to family when accessioned until further examination when it is identified down to species level).
Navigation: from the specimen record, click on the Identification Tab OR the “Edit” hypertext in the corner of the Identification detail
Add an Identification
- In the Add New Determination box, select the appropriate value from the ID Formula drop-down menu. If the new determination does not contain any modifiers (i.e., “sp.”, “cf.”, “x”, “?”, etc.), keep the default formula value (“A”). For redeterminations that involve more than one taxon (e.g., hybrids, “and”, “or”), an additional field will appear when the appropriate formula is selected (“Taxon B”).
- Enter the new identification in the Taxon field(s). TIP: After typing the first few characters of the taxon name in the field, click “Tab” to bring up a pop-up list and select the desired name to populate the field.
- Enter the determiner in the ID By field.
- Enter the Date the redetermination was made.
- Select a Nature of ID from the drop-down menu.
- Record any pertinent Remarks (often for taxonomic revisions it is useful to include the reference information).
- Click the “Create” button to save the ID. The new determination will automatically appear below as the “accepted” ID along with the previous taxonomic determination(s).
Edit Identifications
- Make desired edits in the available fields and click the “Save Changes” button to commit updates.
- Use the “Accepted?” drop-down menu to order the determination history for a specimen record. “Yes” indicates that the current determination is the accepted taxon name, and will prioritize the “accepted” name as the display name for the record. As there can only be one valid ID for a specimen record, the other determination(s) will default to “accepted?” = “no.” You may need to play around with deleting and adding identifications to achieve the desired determination history order.
- To delete an erroneous determination, change the “accepted?” status to “no” and click the red-highlighted “Delete” hypertext. Click the “Save Changes” button to commit edits. It is appropriate to include previous, incomplete, and/or now-obsolete references for record-keeping purposes rather than deleting/overwriting these IDs with current nomenclature.
How to Edit an Identification Tutorial Video
Edit this Documentation
If you see something that needs to be edited in this document, you can create an issue using the link under the search widget at the top left side of this page, or you can edit directly here.