Linking taxa by synonyms

synonym.asc

Test whether two taxa are same using synonyms

This experiment takes two taxa for the same lizard (Geckonia chazaliae or Tarentola chazaliae) and runs a query to discover that these taxa are duplicates. In other words, GBIF has the same lizard twice in its classification.

• Geckonia chazaliae (name) ion:614045

• Geckonia chazaliae (taxon) gbif:2445625

• Tarentola chazaliae (name) ion:1748852

• Tarentola chazaliae (taxon) gbif:5843252

CREATE (gbif2445625:taxon { name:'Geckonia chazaliae' }),(ion614045:name { name: 'Geckonia chazaliae' }),(gbif2445625)-[:HASNAME]->(ion614045),(gbif5843252:taxon { name:'Tarentola chazaliae' }),(ion1748852:name { name: 'Tarentola chazaliae' }),(gbif5843252)-[:HASNAME]->(ion1748852),(ion614045)-[:PROTONYM]->(ion614045),(ion1748852)-[:PROTONYM]->(ion614045)

Graph linking two taxa and their names

Names are linked to protonyms (=basionyms), if name is protonym it is linked to itself. Publications are linked, where known.

Find taxa with same protonym

If there are more than one taxa we have a problem.

MATCH (taxon)-[:HASNAME]-(name)-[:PROTONYM]->(protonym)
RETURN taxon, name, protonym

Count number of taxa with same protonym

If there are more than one taxa we have a problem.

MATCH (taxon)-[:HASNAME]-(name)-[:PROTONYM]->(protonym)
RETURN count(taxon)

Oops, these two "taxa" are the same thing, the two different names are objective synonyms.