Rank

Enumerated ranks of a taxon (scientific organism name) in a taxonomic hierarchy. This list is intended to be interoperable between name providers for bacteria, viruses, fungi, plants, and animals. It is not assumed that in each taxonomic group all ranks have to be used. The enumeration attempts to strike a balance between listing all possible rank terms, and remaining comprehensible. For example, the "infra-" ranks specifically mentioned in BioCode have been included (although very rarely used), but the additional intermediate zoological ranks (micro, nano, pico, etc.) are not included. Whether the selection of infraspecific ranks (some informal ranks, esp. from bacteriology, may be missing!) probably needs some discussion. However, it is believed that this list may help to start developing data sets that can easily be integrated across the barriers of Language and taxonomic traditions. Not included in the list are the botanical "notho-" ranks, which are used to designate hybrids (nothospecies, nothogenus). It is assumed they can be generated from separate information that the taxon is a hybrid. ICBN 4.4 states: "The subordinate ranks of nothotaxa are the same as the subordinate ranks of non-hybrid taxa, except that nothogenus is the highest rank permitted". The following publications have been consulted to determine the number of type terms that should be included and to prepare the semantic definitions: The Berlin Taxonomic Information Model, MoReTax view (Berendsohn & al., http://www.bgbm.org/scripts/ASP/BGBMModel/Catalogues.asp?Cat=MT DiversityTaxonomy model version 0.7 (G. Hagedorn & T. Grafenhan 2002, http://160.45.63.11/Workbench/Taxonomy/Model/InformationModels.html) ABCD version 1.44, types HigherTaxonRankType and RankAbbreviationType, by W. Berendsohn, reviewed by D. Hobern TaxCat2 - Database of Botanical Taxonomic Categories by Jorg Ochsmann, IPK Gatersleben; http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/TaxCat2/default.htm A several ranks have been added to the original list to better accommodate names from ICNCP. (RDH). Many thanks for review and help go to Dr. Walter Gams.