I’m not a researcher, I’m working on 3D web visualisations of data, and a 3D tree/coral of life has always been an interest of mine.
Doe GBIF contain data about: list of species (e.g. for selected kingdoms), taxonomic classification, timeline for each species, “species A evolved from species B” information?
Is it possible to obtain this data without downloading those huge snapshots?
Would using this data to create (public) visualisations be in line with the license of GBIF?
I’ve tried going through the documentation but these questions are not clear to me :).
Hi @evilfer, your idea sounds cool! Please share if you end up accomplishing it Here are a few answers to get you started. I’m guessing the secretariat staff will be able to give you some more specifics.
Does GBIF contain data about: list of species (e.g. for selected kingdoms), taxonomic classification, timeline for each species, “species A evolved from species B” information?
Yes, with the exception of the timeline (AFAIK). The GBIF taxonomic backbone is the checklist you’re looking for. @mgrosjean wrote a nice blog post that explains a bit about how it’s constructed and where it is headed. For a tree, you could check out the Open Tree of Life. Others might have better suggestions for putting a clock on these relationships.
Is it possible to obtain this data without downloading those huge snapshots?
Yes, the backbone is just shy of 1GB, much smaller than the snapshots. You can also query it through the API.
Would using this data to create (public) visualisations be in line with the license of GBIF?
I believe yes, but others can weigh in too. The GBIF Data user agreement gives more details about how to ensure that you’re abiding by the licenses and giving credit to those who generated the data.
Here are a few answers to get you started. I’m guessing the secretariat staff will be able to give you some more specifics.