This TSV file gbif-col265.tsv.gz maps taxon identifiers from the legacy GBIF Backbone
Taxonomy (integer usageKeys) to the corresponding taxa in the
Catalogue of Life 26.5 Extended Release (COL 26.5 XR) (alphanumeric
identifiers). It lets you translate any record, link, or analysis keyed on old GBIF
backbone IDs to the taxonomy that GBIF now uses by default.
GBIF has discontinued the periodic build of its own backbone taxonomy and switched its primary taxonomy to the Catalogue of Life Extended Release. The old GBIF Backbone is frozen but kept available for backwards compatibility, and every occurrence is now matched against both taxonomies in parallel. Anyone with existing data, code, or persistent links built on the integer backbone keys needs a crosswalk to the new COL identifiers — that is what this file provides.
The two taxonomies use different, non-overlapping identifier schemes, so the source of any key is unambiguous:
2979180
(Acacia acuminata). This mapping uses the last published version of the
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (28 August 2023), which is its final release before the
build was discontinued.8NQF
(Acacia acuminata).Tab-separated values (TSV), one row per GBIF backbone usage, with a header row. Each
row carries the source taxon from the GBIF Backbone (gbif: columns) and the
taxon it was matched to in COL 26.5 XR (col: columns).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
gbif:ID | Integer usage key in the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. |
gbif:status | Taxonomic status in the backbone (e.g. accepted, provisionally accepted). |
gbif:rank | Taxonomic rank (e.g. kingdom, genus, species). |
gbif:scientificName | Scientific name (canonical, without authorship). |
gbif:authorship | Name authorship. |
gbif:kingdom … gbif:genus | Higher classification (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus). |
gbif:species | Parent species name for infraspecific records. |
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
col:ID | Alphanumeric identifier of the matched name in COL 26.5 XR. |
col:rank | Rank of the matched COL name. |
col:scientificName | Matched COL scientific name (canonical). |
col:authorship | Authorship of the matched COL name. |
col:status | Status of the matched name in COL (e.g. accepted, provisionally accepted, synonym). |
col:acceptedID | If the match is a synonym, the COL ID of the accepted taxon it points to. |
col:acceptedScientificName | Accepted COL name (when col:status is synonym). |
col:acceptedAuthorship | Authorship of the accepted COL name. |
col:kingdom … col:genus | Higher classification of the accepted COL taxon. |
col:classification | Full COL classification as a |-separated list of RANK:name authorship pairs, from genus up to domain. |
We primarily used ChecklistBank matching services to generate it. A basic analysis of the matching gaps has been done. Notably all UNITE and GTDB molecular TOU names have no match in COL any longer. COL uses a newer version 10 of UNITE.
col:status is synonym and col:acceptedID /
col:acceptedScientificName give the accepted COL taxon to use. The
col:kingdom…col:classification columns describe that accepted taxon.col:status before
treating col:ID as an equivalent.col: columns mean no COL 26.5 XR match was found
for that backbone key.You don't need this file for one-off lookups. The GBIF species-match API (v2) can
resolve a GBIF Backbone usage key to its COL XR equivalent on demand. Point the
match service at the COL Extended Release with checklistKey=xcol and pass the
backbone key as taxonID=gbif:<usageKey>:
GET https://api.gbif.org/v2/species/match?checklistKey=xcol&taxonID=gbif:797Here gbif:797 is the backbone key for the order Lepidoptera and
xcol is the alias for the Catalogue of Life Extended Release (equivalently,
checklistKey=7ddf754f-d193-4cc9-b351-99906754a03b). The response carries the
matched COL usage; its key is the COL identifier — the same value as the
col:ID column in this file:
{
"usage": {
"key": "B6L67",
"name": "Lepidoptera",
"rank": "ORDER",
"status": "ACCEPTED"
},
"diagnostics": { "matchType": "VARIANT" }
// the full response also includes the "classification" array
}Notes:
gbif: prefix tells the
service the identifier is a GBIF Backbone usage key.usage is that synonym and an acceptedUsage block (with
status: "SYNONYM") gives the accepted taxon — mirroring the
col:acceptedID / col:acceptedScientificName columns here.usage and
diagnostics.matchType is NONE — the equivalent of an empty
col: row in this file.d7dddbf4-2cf0-4f39-9b2a-bb099caae36c