This page is a reference to versions of Darwin Core schemas. A dynamic status report of Darwin Core providers can be found at the Big Dig web site.

Darwin Core Versions

The following versions of the Darwin Core are of historical significance:

• DwC 1.2 schema -- first deployed version (used in GBIF, also known as DarwinCoreV2?)
• DwC 1.21 schema -- revised version (used in GBIF, MaNIS, HerpNet, OrNIS, and FishNet2)
• DwC 1.3 schema -- draft standard of the Darwin Core accepted at TDWG Meeting 2004, Christchurch, New Zealand. (unused)
• DwC 1.4 schema -- draft standard under discussion (not for use)
• OBIS -- based on DwC 1.2 (used in GBIF, Ocean Biogeographic Information System)
• PaleoPortal -- based on DwC 1.2 (used in The Paleontology Portal)

The normative form of any Darwin Core version is its XML schema document (*.xsd).

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Schema Element Comparison Table

DwC 1.2	DwC 1.21	OBIS	DwC 1.4 (and extensions)
			GlobalUniqueIdentifier
DateLastModified	DateLastModified	DateLastModified	DateLastModified
InstitutionCode	InstitutionCode	InstitutionCode	InstitutionCode
CollectionCode	CollectionCode	CollectionCode	CollectionCode
CatalogNumber	CatalogNumberText	CatalogNumber	CatalogNumber
	CatalogNumberNumeric		CatalogNumberNumeric (curatorial)
		RecordURL
ScientificName	ScientificName	ScientificName	ScientificName
BasisOfRecord	BasisOfRecord	BasisOfRecord	BasisOfRecord
		Source
		Citation
			InformationWithheld
	HigherTaxon		HigherTaxon
Kingdom	Kingdom	Kingdom	Kingdom
Phylum	Phylum	Phylum	Phylum
Class	Class	Class	Class
Order	Order	Order	Order
Family	Family	Family	Family
Genus	Genus	Genus	Genus
		SubGenus
Species	Species	Species	SpecificEpithet
Subspecies	Subspecies	Subspecies	InfraSpecificEpithet
			InfraspecificRank
ScientificNameAuthor	ScientificNameAuthor	ScientificNameAuthor	AuthorYearOfScientificName
			NomenclaturalCode
	IdentificationModifier		IdentificationQualifier
IdentifiedBy	IdentifiedBy	IdentifiedBy	IdentifiedBy (curatorial)
YearIdentified	YearIdentified	YearIdentified	DateIdentified (curatorial)
MonthIdentified	MonthIdentified	MonthIdentified	DateIdentified (curatorial)
DayIdentified	DayIdentified	DayIdentified	DateIdentified (curatorial)
TypeStatus	TypeStatus	TypeStatus	TypeStatus (curatorial)
			CollectingMethod
			ValidDistributionFlag
CollectorNumber	CollectorNumber	CollectorNumber	CollectorNumber (curatorial)
FieldNumber	FieldNumber	FieldNumber	FieldNumber (curatorial)
Collector	Collector	Collector	Collector
YearCollected	YearCollected	YearCollected	EarliestDateCollected, LatestDateCollected
		StartYearCollected	EarliestDateCollected
		EndYearCollected	LatestDateCollected
MonthCollected	MonthCollected	MonthCollected	EarliestDateCollected, LatestDateCollected
		StartMonthCollected	EarliestDateCollected
		EndMonthCollected	LatestDateCollected
DayCollected	DayCollected	DayCollected	EarliestDateCollected, LatestDateCollected
		StartDayCollected	EarliestDateCollected
		EndDayCollected	LatestDateCollected
	VerbatimCollectingDate		VerbatimCollectingDate (curatorial)
JulianDay	JulianDay	JulianDay	DayOfYear
		StartJulianDay
		EndJulianDay
TimeOfDay	TimeCollected	TimeOfDay?
		StartTimeOfDay
		EndTimeOfDay
		TimeZone
	FieldNotes		FieldNotes (curatorial)
	HigherGeography		HigherGeography
ContinentOcean	ContinentOcean	ContinentOcean	Continent
			WaterBody
	IslandGroup		IslandGroup
	Island		Island
Country	Country	Country	Country
StateProvince	StateProvince	StateProvince	StateProvince
County	County	County	County
Locality	Locality	Locality	Locality
Longitude	DecimalLongitude	Longitude	DecimalLongitude (geospatial)
	VerbatimLongitude		VerbatimLongitude (geospatial)
		StartLongitude
		EndLongitude
Latitude	DecimalLatitude	Latitude	DecimalLatitude (geospatial)
	VerbatimLatitude		VerbatimLatitude (geospatial)
		StartLatitude
		EndLatitude
	HorizontalDatum		GeodeticDatum (geospatial)
	OriginalCoordinateSystem		VerbatimCoordinateSystem (geospatial)
	GeorefMethod		GeoreferenceProtocol (geospatial)
CoordinatePrecision	CoordinateUncertaintyInMeters	CoordinatePrecision	CoordinateUncertaintyInMeters (geospatial)
		Start_EndCoordinatePrecision
	LatLongComments		GeoreferenceRemarks (geospatial)
BoundingBox	BoundingBox	BoundingBox	FootprintWKT? (geospatial)
MinimumElevation	MinimumElevationInMeters	MinimumElevation	MinimumElevationInMeters
MaximumElevation	MaximumElevationInMeters	MaximumElevation	MaximumElevationInMeters
	VerbatimElevation		VerbatimElevation (curatorial)
MinimumDepth	MinimumDepthInMeters	MinimumDepth	MinimumDepthInMeters
MaximumDepth	MaximumDepthInMeters	MaximumDepth	MaximumDepthInMeters
	VerbatimDepth		VerbatimDepth (curatorial)
		DepthRange
		Temperature
Sex	Sex	Sex	Sex
	AgeClass	LifeStage	LifeStage
PreparationType	Preparations	PreparationType	Preparations (curatorial)
	Tissues		Preparations (curatorial)
IndividualCount	IndividualCount	IndividualCount	IndividualCount (curatorial)
		ObservedIndividualCount
		SampleSize
		ObservedWeight
	GenBankNum		GenBankNum? (curatorial)
PreviousCatalogNumber	OtherCatalogNumbers	PreviousCatalogNumber	OtherCatalogNumbers (curatorial)
RelationshipType		RelationshipType?
RelatedCatalogItem	RelatedCatalogItems	RelatedCatalogItem	RelatedCatalogItems? (curatorial)
Notes	Remarks	Notes	Remarks
		GMLFeature
			Attributes
			ImageURL
			RelatedInformation
			Disposition (curatorial)
			PointRadiusSpatialFit (geospatial)
			FootprintWKT?
			FootprintSpatialFit
			VerbatimCoordinates
			GeoreferenceSources
			GeoreferenceVerificationStatus

Comments

Use the space below to make comments about this page. -- JohnWieczorek - 24 Aug 2006

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Why Darwin Core 2? Posted by: mole Date: 17 December 2004, 12:17

Shouldn't this be Darwin Core 3? There is already a Darwin Core V2 in use http://digir.net/schema/conceptual/darwin/2003/1.0/darwin2.xsd (from which the OBIS schema is extended http://iobis.org//obis/obis.xsd ).

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Comment above references an earlier version of this page where DwC 1.3 was referred to as Darwin Core 2, a nomenclatural issue that has since been fixed by adoption of the 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 naming convention.

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