The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy is a single, synthetic management classification with the goal of covering all names GBIF is dealing with. It's the taxonomic backbone that allows GBIF to integrate name based information from different resources, no matter if these are occurrence datasets, species pages, names from nomenclators or external sources like EOL, Genbank or IUCN. This backbone allows taxonomic search, browse and reporting operations across all those resources in a consistent way and to provide means to crosswalk names from one source to another.

It is updated regulary through an automated process in which the Catalogue of Life acts as a starting point also providing the complete higher classification above families. Additional scientific names only found in other authoritative nomenclatural and taxonomic datasets are then merged into the tree, thus extending the original catalogue and broadening the backbones name coverage. The GBIF Backbone taxonomy also includes identifiers for Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) drawn from the barcoding resources iBOL and UNITE.

International Barcode of Life project (iBOL), Barcode Index Numbers (BINs). BINs are connected to a taxon name and its classification by taking into account all names applied to the BIN and picking names with at least 80% consensus. If there is no consensus of name at the species level, the selection process is repeated moving up the major Linnaean ranks until consensus is achieved.

UNITE - Unified system for the DNA based fungal species, Species Hypotheses (SHs). SHs are connected to a taxon name and its classification based on the determination of the RefS (reference sequence) if present or the RepS (representative sequence). In the latter case, if there is no match in the UNITE taxonomy, the lowest rank with 100% consensus within the SH will be used.

The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy is available for download at https://hosted-datasets.gbif.org/datasets/backbone/ in different formats together with an archive of all previous versions.

The following 105 sources have been used to assemble the GBIF backbone with number of names given in brackets:

• Catalogue of Life Checklist - 4766428 names
• International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) - 635951 names
• UNITE - Unified system for the DNA based fungal species linked to the classification - 611208 names
• The Paleobiology Database - 212054 names
• World Register of Marine Species - 188857 names
• The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera - 183894 names
• The World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP) - 131891 names
• GBIF Backbone Taxonomy - 114350 names
• TAXREF - 109374 names
• The Leipzig catalogue of vascular plants - 75380 names
• ZooBank - 73549 names
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) - 68377 names
• Plazi.org taxonomic treatments database - 61346 names
• Genome Taxonomy Database r207 - 60545 names
• International Plant Names Index - 52329 names
• Fauna Europaea - 45077 names
• The National Checklist of Taiwan (Catalogue of Life in Taiwan, TaiCoL) - 36193 names
• Dyntaxa. Svensk taxonomisk databas - 35892 names
• The Plant List with literature - 32692 names
• United Kingdom Species Inventory (UKSI) - 29643 names
• Artsnavnebasen - 29208 names
• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - 21221 names
• Afromoths, online database of Afrotropical moth species (Lepidoptera) - 13961 names
• Brazilian Flora 2020 project - Projeto Flora do Brasil 2020 - 13829 names
• Prokaryotic Nomenclature Up-to-Date (PNU) - 10079 names
• Checklist Dutch Species Register - Nederlands Soortenregister - 8814 names
• ICTV Master Species List (MSL) - 7852 names
• Cockroach Species File - 6020 names
• GRIN Taxonomy - 5882 names
• Taxon list of fungi and fungal-like organisms from Germany compiled by the DGfM - 4570 names
• Catalogue of Afrotropical Bees - 3623 names
• Catalogue of Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera) of North America - 3327 names
• Checklist of Beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second Edition. - 3312 names
• Systema Dipterorum - 2850 names
• Catalogue of the Pterophoroidea of the World - 2807 names
• The Clements Checklist - 2675 names
• Taxon list of Hymenoptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 2496 names
• IOC World Bird List, v13.2 - 2366 names
• Official Lists and Indexes of Names in Zoology - 2310 names
• National checklist of all species occurring in Denmark - 1922 names
• Myriatrix - 1876 names
• Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) - 1822 names
• Taxon list of vascular plants from Bavaria, Germany compiled in the context of the BFL project - 1771 names
• Orthoptera Species File - 1742 names
• A list of the terrestrial fungi, flora and fauna of Madeira and Selvagens archipelagos - 1602 names
• Aphid Species File - 1565 names
• World Spider Catalog - 1561 names
• Taxon list of Jurassic Pisces of the Tethys Palaeo-Environment compiled at the SNSB-JME - 1270 names
• Backbone Family Classification Patch - 1143 names
• GBIF Algae Classification - 1100 names
• International Cichorieae Network (ICN): Cichorieae Portal - 975 names
• Psocodea Species File - 803 names
• New Zealand Marine Macroalgae Species Checklist - 787 names
• Annotated checklist of endemic species from the Western Balkans - 754 names
• Taxon list of animals with German names (worldwide) compiled at the SMNS - 503 names
• Catalogue of the Alucitoidea of the World - 472 names
• Lygaeoidea Species File - 462 names
• Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia - 422 names
• GBIF Backbone Patch - 317 names
• Phasmida Species File - 259 names
• Cortinariaceae fetched from the Index Fungorum API - 234 names
• Coreoidea Species File - 233 names
• GTDB supplement - 139 names
• Mantodea Species File - 119 names
• Endemic species in Taiwan - 93 names
• Taxon list of Araneae from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 88 names
• Species of Hominidae - 78 names
• Taxon list of Sternorrhyncha from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 77 names
• Taxon list of mosses from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 75 names
• Mammal Species of the World - 73 names
• Plecoptera Species File - 71 names
• Species Fungorum Plus - 64 names
• Catalogue of the type specimens of Cosmopterigidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea) from research collections of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences - 47 names
• Species named after famous people - 41 names
• Dermaptera Species File - 36 names
• Taxon list of Trichoptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 34 names
• True Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) of the Afrotropical Region - 33 names
• Range and Regularities in the Distribution of Earthworms of the Earthworms of the USSR Fauna. Perel, 1979 - 32 names
• Taxon list of Diplura from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 30 names
• Lista de referencia de especies de aves de Colombia - 2022 - 24 names
• Taxon list of Auchenorrhyncha from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 20 names
• Catalogue of the type specimens of Polycestinae (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from research collections of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences - 19 names
• Taxon list of Thysanoptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 19 names
• Lista de especies de vertebrados registrados en jurisdicción del Departamento del Huila - 18 names
• Taxon list of Microcoryphia (Archaeognatha) from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 15 names
• Catalogue of the type specimens of Bufonidae and Megophryidae (Amphibia: Anura) from research collections of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences - 12 names
• Grylloblattodea Species File - 11 names
• Coleorrhyncha Species File - 9 names
• Taxon list of liverworts from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 9 names
• Embioptera Species File - 7 names
• Taxon list of Pisces and Cyclostoma from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 6 names
• Taxon list of Pteridophyta from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 6 names
• Taxon list of Siphonaptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 5 names
• The Earthworms of the Fauna of Russia. Perel, 1997 - 5 names
• Taxon list of Zygentoma from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 4 names
• Asiloid Flies: new taxa of Diptera: Apioceridae, Asilidae, and Mydidae - 3 names
• Taxon list of Protura from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 3 names
• Taxon list of hornworts from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 2 names
• Chrysididae Species File - 1 names
• Taxon list of Dermaptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 1 names
• Taxon list of Diplopoda from Germany in the context of the GBOL project - 1 names
• Taxon list of Orthoptera (Grashoppers) from Germany compiled at the SNSB - 1 names
• Taxon list of Pscoptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 1 names
• Taxon list of Pseudoscorpiones from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 1 names
• Taxon list of Raphidioptera from Germany compiled in the context of the GBOL project - 1 names

The Purdue Entomological Research Collection (PERC) is an integral part of the Department of Entomology at Purdue University. Specimens housed in the collection are the basis for research in systematic entomology at Purdue and by specialists worldwide. The PERC also serves as a reference to facilitate the accurate and timely identification of insects for extension and teaching needs. Approximately 2 million specimens are held, representing more than 140,000 species. This includes mainly dry-mounted pinned material as well as many specimens stored in liquid preservative or mounted on slides.

The dataset contains details of the biota caught during plankton surveys around New Zealand and the south western Pacific although some occurrence data is included from other oceans sourced from the digitisation of journal articles from New Zealand authors. A large source from this dataset is provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries from its "plankton" and "rocklob" databases. This dataset records all biological specimens collected during plankton sampling including fish, larvae, and eggs. This dataset does not include and data from Constant Plankton Recorders.

Specimen data from the Allan Herbarium (CHR), Landcare Research, New Zealand.

RV Tangaroa carried out a six-week voyage to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean between 9 February and 21 March 2018 with scientists from NIWA and the University of Auckland.

Scientists did a range of surveys to better understand the processes governing this environment and its relevance to New Zealand. These included oceanographic observations, atmospheric observations, whale and benthic habitat studies, along with studies of plankton communities. The whale studies were carried out by the University of Auckland.

The research aims of the voyage were to better understand: * Climate change effects on oceanographic processes; * Marine microbial community structure and function ; * Influence of marine aerosols on cloud formation and properties of Antarctic clouds; * Seabed habitats and fauna inside and outside of the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA); * The role of whales in the Antarctic ecosystem; * Abundance and distribution of mesopelagic fish found between 200 and 100m deep, krill, and zooplankton

One of the key outcomes of the research will be to generate baseline data required to determine whether the objectives of the MPA are being achieved. The MPA covers more than 1.55 million square kilometres and came into existence in December.

he ship carried 23 scientists and 17 crew. Together their work ranged from taking atmospheric and oceanographic observations and samples, to whale spotting, maintaining the vessel, and cooking meals around the clock to service the 24-hour operation of the ship.

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Lörz, Anne-Nina, Peart, Rachael A. (2023): Amathillopsidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from New Zealand, Including the Description of a New Species. Records of the Australian Museum (Rec. Aust. Mus.) 75 (4): 459-470, DOI: 10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1885, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1885

Biological data from the IPY-CAML voyage (TAN0802) by the R/V Tangaroa. The TAN0802 voyage departed from Wellington, New Zealand on Jan 26th 2008 and returned to Wellington, New Zealand, on Mar 21st 2008. The survey was concentrated mainly on the Ross Sea and the waters around Scott and the Balleny Islands. Biological data was collected using a variety of gear, including: bottom trawls, beam trawls, epibenthic sleds, Van Veen grabs, Rosette water bottle and MOCNESS tows. The voyage resulted from a announcement by the Prime Minister in 2007 for new government funding for a New Zealand Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) project to support biodiversity studies in the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea Region as part of the governments Ocean Survey 20/20 (OS2020) programme and the International Polar Year (IPY) activities. The overall Project includes two phases a) data collection voyage and b) data analysis and reporting. The recognition of International Polar Year (IPY) throughout the globe from March 2007 to March 2009 has provided the impetus for a large international effort to conduct collaborative research both in Antarctica and the Arctic, spanning two summer seasons in both regions. New Zealand is participating in a range of both terrestrial and marine projects for IPY that are important, not only nationally, but also in the international science arena. The Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) is a major multi-national IPY Programme that New Zealand’s project is part of. This project forms a particularly important component of the international CAML Programme, as it will not only be part of the circum-polar national surveys, but will provide an opportunity to compare fauna and ecosystems from opposite sides of the globe including the two most significant shelf areas in Antarctica-the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea.

The Luther entomological research collection, one of the collections of the Hoslett Museum of Natural History at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, is an important repository of Northeast Iowa insect biodiversity and includes many state record specimens (insect species not previously found in Iowa) not found in the Iowa State University insect collection. The LERC has a unique role specializing in the documentation of insect biodiversity of the driftless region in NE Iowa, SE Minnesota, and SW Wisconsin.

The database contains information about zoological collection of Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków.

Butterfly monitoring scheme in Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). This dataset contains transect data for butterfly species, collected using a standardized protocol since 1991. Data from 1991-2014 were collected in the INBO Vlinderdatabank (Maes et al. 2016), but have since been migrated to the meetnetten.be database, where new observations are recorded. Here, the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event an eventID, date, location and sampling protocol (in the event core), the cloudiness, temperature, and wind force at the time of the event (in the measurement or fact extension) and for each occurrence an occurrenceID, the number of recorded individuals in a transect, lifestage, status (present/absent), vernacular and scientific name (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/meetnetten-occurrences/issues

Generalized and/or withheld information: location information is generalized to 5 Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells. Original locations are available upon request.

We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.

Biodiversity data of the modern foraminifera in the New Zealand EEZ sourced from Dr Bruce Hayward at Geomarine Research. These data come from two projects: (1) modern deep-sea (100-5000 m water depth) foraminifera; and (2) a 7 year project (1991-1998) on the biodiversity and ecological distribution of modern brackish and shallow-water (0-100 m) foraminifera around New Zealand.

Florabank1 is a database that contains distributional data on the wild flora (indigenous species, archeophytes and naturalised aliens) of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region. It holds about 3 million records of vascular plants, dating from 1800 till present. Furthermore, it includes ecological data on vascular plant species, redlist category information, Ellenberg values, legal status, global distribution, seed bank etc. The database is an initiative of "Flo.Wer" (http://www.plantenwerkgroep.be), the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) (http://www.inbo.be) and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (http://www.br.fgov.be). Florabank aims at centralizing botanical distribution data gathered by both professional and amateur botanists and to make these data available to the benefit of nature conservation, policy and scientific research. The occurrence data contained in Florabank1 are extracted from checklists, literature and herbarium specimen information. Of survey lists, the locality name (verbatimLocality), species name, observation date and IFBL square code - the grid system used for plant mapping in Belgium (Van Rompaey 1943) - are recorded. For records dating from the period 1972–2004 all pertinent botanical journals dealing with Belgian flora were systematically screened. Analysis of herbarium specimens in the collection of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, the University of Ghent and the University of Liège provided interesting distribution knowledge concerning rare species, this information is also included in Florabank1.

The IFBL data recorded before 1972 is available through the Belgian GBIF node (http://www.gbif.org/dataset/940821c0-3269-11df-855a-b8a03c50a862), not through Florabank1, to avoid duplication of information. A dedicated portal providing access to all currently published Belgian IFBL records is available at: http://projects.biodiversity.be/ifbl.

All data in Florabank1 is georeferenced. Every record holds the decimal centroid coordinates of the > IFBL square containing the observation. The uncertainty radius is the smallest circle possible covering the whole IFBL square, which can measure 1 km² or 4 km². Florabank is a work in progress and new occurrences are added as they become available; the dataset will be updated through GBIF on a regularly base.

Three species of epiphytic dinoflagellates - Ostreopsis siamensis, O. lenticularis, and O. ovata have recently been found on both the east and west coasts of the upper North Island, New Zealand. The morphological differences of all three Ostreopsis spp. have been studied with both light and scanning electron microscopes. Detailed studies of the inner face of the thecal wall of Ostreopsis siamensis revealed two types of trichocyst pores: small, simple pores and large multipore structures. The multipore structures apparently have not been previously reported. Surveys conducted during the period from November 1995 to April 1997 showed that all three Ostreopsis spp. were fairly widespread in northern New Zealand, and all three species were found to occur south of 35°S latitude. Cell concentrations of Ostreopsis spp. in summer were substantially higher than in early spring. There was also a clear regional difference in distribution; cell concentrations of the dominant species, O. siamensis, were greatest in Rarawa and Tokerau on the north-east coast. Other less abundant epiphytic species recorded during the same period included Prorocentrum lima, P. compressum, and Coolia monotis. These species were generally more sporadic in distribution than Ostreopsis spp.

Data collected with a 2m beamtrawl towed about 200-300m. Dataset contains numbers and combined wet weight of specimen (down to 1 mg) within same species or higher taxonomic unit. Samples are preserved on formalin and then alcohol. After id the material is stored at the Bergen Museum, Bergen, Norway.

The Department of Ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History encompasses approximately 35,000 research specimens and more than a century of ornithological exploration around the world. The department was established in 2006 through a generous bequest from William A. and Nancy R. Klamm, whose donation created an endowed chair for the curator and department head.

This dataset contains INSDC sequence records not associated with environmental sample identifiers or host organisms. The dataset is prepared periodically using the public ENA API (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/portal/api/) by querying data with search parameters: `environmental_sample=False & host=""`

EMBL-EBI also publishes other records in separate datasets (https://www.gbif.org/publisher/ada9d123-ddb4-467d-8891-806ea8d94230).

The data was then processed as follows:

1. Human sequences were excluded.

2. For non-CONTIG records, the sample accession number (when available) along with the scientific name were used to identify sequence records corresponding to the same individuals (or group of organism of the same species in the same sample). Only one record was kept for each scientific name/sample accession number.

3. Contigs and whole genome shotgun (WGS) records were added individually.

4. The records that were missing some information were excluded. Only records associated with a specimen voucher or records containing both a location AND a date were kept.

5. The records associated with the same vouchers are aggregated together.

6. A lot of records left corresponded to individual sequences or reads corresponding to the same organisms. In practise, these were "duplicate" occurrence records that weren't filtered out in STEP 2 because the sample accession sample was missing. To identify those potential duplicates, we grouped all the remaining records by `scientific_name`, `collection_date`, `location`, `country`, `identified_by`, `collected_by` and `sample_accession` (when available). Then we excluded the groups that contained more than 50 records. The rationale behind the choice of threshold is explained here: https://github.com/gbif/embl-adapter/issues/10#issuecomment-855757978

7. To improve the matching of the EBI scientific name to the GBIF backbone taxonomy, we incorporated the ENA taxonomic information. The kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, and genus were obtained from the ENA taxonomy checklist available here: http://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/ena/taxonomy/sdwca.zip

More information available here: https://github.com/gbif/embl-adapter#readme

You can find the mapping used to format the EMBL data to Darwin Core Archive here: https://github.com/gbif/embl-adapter/blob/master/DATAMAPPING.md

Ceratioid anglerfishes collected from New Zealand waters are reviewed on the basis of all known material. Twenty species in nine genera and six families are recognised; nine species represent new records for the region, and one species of Oneirodes is described as new to science. Diagnostic and descriptive data are given with notes on geographical distribution. Diagnoses of all ceratioid families are provided, against the possibility of capture within the New Zealand EEZ

RMNH_INVERTEBRATE_MARINE_EXPEDITIONS_SPECIMENS is an extract of several databases which were the result of NWO Groot "Building de database of Life" in 2005 and 2006 in which the handwritten registers were digitised

Various occurences in the Museum's Recorder-Lux database collected by the the Nature Park Our, http://www.naturpark-our.lu/

The occurrence recodes in this dataset were previously contained in the GBIF dataset: Collections and observation data National Museum of Natural History Luxembourg https://www.gbif.org/dataset/962f59bc-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a

Poblaciones de Neltuma denudans muestreadas en su área de distribución, las provincias patagónicas Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut y Santa Cruz.