EPICC Taxonomy

The EPICC taxonomic dictionary was migrated from Excel into EMu in Spring 2019. Following this migration will be a transition period and the documentation on this page should be updated to reflect evolving decisions made about managing EPICC taxonomy in EMu. For a column-by-column breakdown of how data was migrated, please refer to the crosswalk tab in the file Dropbox > EMu > Data Migration Archive > Taxonomy > epicc-taxonomic-dictionary > EPICC_Taxonomy Table Master_MIGRATING_2019-04-12.xlsx.

All names that originated from the EPICC taxonomic dictionary are flagged as such and can be found by searching Label=”project” and Description=”epicc” on the Description tab of the Taxonomy module.

Before following the protocol here, please review documentation for the Taxonomy module.

Citations tab

The Citations tab records opinions and distribution details associated with a specific source, be that a publication, a person, a collection, or a consolidation of knowledge like the EPICC Taxonomic Dictionary.

The following Excel columns were migrated into the Citations tab:

Reference, where the value is retained in the Cited In field and for which the entry was also flagged as the primary citation.
Validated, where the value is retained in the Cited In field and paired with a standard comment (“taxonomic data entered”) in Remarks.
Fossil Distribution, where the value was retained in the Remarks field and listed as Cited In = EPICC Taxonomic Dictionary.
Hall (2002) FAD and Hall (2002) LAD, where the values were retained in the Remarks field and listed as Cited In = Hall 2002.

Citations tab of the EMu taxonomy module — Screenshot of the *Citations* tab of the Taxonomy module, showing details for three citation entries that originated in three different Excel columns. The highlighted data is from *Fossil Distribution* and you can see that it is linked to the bibliography record for the EPICC Taxonomy Dictionary. The middle row in the *Citations* table originated in the *Hall (2002) FAD* and *Hall (2002) LAD* columns, and the top row came from what had been listed in the *Reference* column in Excel.

Validity tab

Name status

EMu has a field called Currently Accepted? to track names that should be used versus synonyms. More detailed information about the name status of EPICC taxonomy can be found on the Validity tab, where data from the Excel columns Category and Taxonomic Comments was migrated.

Validity tab of the EMu taxonomy module — Screenshot of the *Validity* tab of the Taxonomy module, showing details for data migrated from the *Category* (‘Poor’) and *Taxonomic Comments* (always prefaced by ‘TAXONOMIC COMMENT’) fields in Excel.

As with other information that was migrated into EMu based on the Excel version of the EPICC taxonomic dictionary, validity rows displaying data from Category and Taxonomic Comments are linked to the “EPICC Taxonomic Dictionary” bibliography record.

Taxonomic name history

EPICC taxonomic name history, including Excel data from the Original and Synonyms columns, was migrated into EMu’s Validity tab using the logic diagrammed in the figure below.

diagram of logic used to migrated EPICC taxonomy name history — Diagram of logic used to migrate EPICC taxonomic name history into the *Validity* tab of the Taxonomy module. This same logic should be used to continue entering new information about taxonomic name history into EMu.

As an example of the above, for the name Anadara camuloensis the Excel column Original listed “Arca camuloensis,” and the Synonym field had:

Arca camuloensis Osmont, 1905 • Anadara camuloensis (Osmont), Woodring, 1938, p. 29, pl. 6, figs. 10, 13-16; Winterer & Durham, 1962, table 4 • Arca (Larkinia) camuloensis, Larkinia camuloensis (Osmont) • Anadara (Larkinia) camuloensis (Osmont), Durham & Addicott, 1965, table 1 • Arca (Arca) multicostata camuloensis

In EMu, that information has been translated into five entries in the Name Status (Validity) table:

One for the current name with citation information: Anadara camuloensis (Osmont), Woodring, 1938, p. 29, pl. 6, figs. 10, 13-16; Winterer & Durham, 1962, table 4
One for the first synonym with citation information: Arca camuloensis Osmont, 1905
One for the second synonym with citation information: Larkinia camuloensis (Osmont)
One for the third synonym with citation information: Anadara (Larkinia) camuloensis (Osmont), Durham & Addicott, 1965, table 1
One for all other synonyms that do not yet have citation information: Arca (Larkinia) camuloensis, Arca (Arca) multicostata camuloensis

screenshot of the Validity tab in EMu showing taxonomic name history — Screenshot of taxonomic name history for *Anadara camuloensis* captured on the *Validity* tab of the Taxonomy module. The highlighted entry here illustrates how information for the current name (*Anadara camuloensis*) is captured.

Please note that the order of the rows in the Name Status (Validity) table should be chronological by historic use, but that in the process of migrating the taxonomic dictionary that order was not preserved perfectly. Re-ordering the rows is as simple as clicking the lefthand side (where each row is numbered) and dragging it up or down.

Descriptions tab

The following columns were migrated to the Descriptions tab in EMu, and will move to a new tab (Ecology) in the pending EMu update:

Age Range
Geog. Range
Type No.
L, W, and H
Recent Dist
High Lat and Low Lat
Min Depth and Max Depth
Zone
Substrate
Abundance
Min Temp and Max Temp

Descriptions tab of the EMu taxonomy module — Screenshot of the *Descriptions* tab of the Taxonomy module, showing various attributes for an EPICC name.

Other attributes were not migrated into EMu either because the field held a calculated value (e.g. Mean Depth) or because the field was related to a specific project that did not need to be carried forward into EMu (e.g. Extinction).