A TaxonConcept is a first class object in the TaxonConceptSchema. It is used to encode an actual taxon i.e. a name (that may be represented as a TaxonName) plus an author who is circumscribing the taxon. The author circumscribing the taxon may or may not be the original author of the TaxonName. The differentiation between a TaxonConcept (has volume) and TaxonName (just a structure for communicating nomenclatural data) is an important one.

-- RogerHyam - 24 Nov 2005