Catalogue of Living Whales Example: Physeter catodon

Original Catalogue excerpt for Physeter catodon is here (PDF). The complete catalog text is here.

View the source spreadsheet at Google Docs.

Issues raised during transformation

This catalogue presents a number of challenges and decisions.

1. There is some ambiguity in what might constitute a row in the core taxon table. A single taxon (Physeter catodon) is described by a series of references. Some of these refer to the use of the valid name itself. The remainder refer to synonyms. A single synonym may be referenced multiple times where one reference is the primary or original publication of the particular orthography in the list and subsequent references are materials examined by the author that conform with the concept. Options for mapping this to DwC terms include:
1. Generate a distinct list of names with their summary taxonomicStatus and nomenclaturalStatus properties. Put all citations into a Reference extension with a dc:type that qualifies the reference using some voc for that purposes (See example).
2. Generate a distinct list of names with their summary taxonomicStatus and nomenclaturalStatus properties and leave the primary citation in the core as an unparsed namePublishedIn term. All subsequent citations tied to that name go into a Reference extension. This option strikes me as a bit arbitrary where the more important original citation is left unparsed in the core while all others are parsed in a References extension.
3. List each citation entry as a distinct row in the core taxon table and place the primary citations in namePublished in to reference their status as the original publication of the name, and all subsequent secondary citations in nameAccordingTo. This option doesn't sit so well either as I don't think it fits the intent of nameAccordingTo. This case is where the term "nameUsage" or "taxonReference" is a bit more clear.
2. Type authors are not included in new combinations of the name. Instead the first author listed is that of the author behind the publication of the new distinct name. This is a departure of the Yale example and means that we either leave scientific name authorship off the entries or interpret them. It doesn't seem appropriate, however, to add parenthetical authorship based on interpretation where it doesn't exist in the text.
3. Vernacular Names are sometimes uses within the taxonomic description in the same manner as scientific names. Treating this consistently would require a dwc:vernacularName entry in the core file and a reference to it with a taxonID.
4. Nearly all data in the catalog can be accommodated with the core and extensions we have developed. The one exception concerns the identification of the type designator (species|genus) for a genus or family. Species type information can be accommodate in the example but some typeDesignator sort of term seems to be needed to handle the others. See page 26 in the complete text for a typical example.
5. What is the mechanism for citing the entry location in the source catalogue? I was considering whether this is the more appropriate use of nameAccordingTo where the reference is to Hershkovitz and the page number.