Unique identifiers in FoTX are displayed at the top of each specimen page and included in the url. By default, they are a combination of a letter-based acronym or codon representing the data originator (for specimens, this is a museum collection) followed by a numeric catalog number unique to the originator (sometimes letters or other characters are included). The two are separated by an underscore ("_") starting in Version 3 (Version 1.0 and 2.0 lacked underscores). The numbers correspond to unique museum lots, which are typically a jar of specimens of a single species collected by a group of collectors at a particular location and date. The codon usually conforms to ASIH standards (Sebaj, 2020), but see here for a list of all of our donor codons. See the example below:

institutional codon: TNHC

museum record/lot: 1234

FoTX unique identifier: TNHC_1234

FoTX url for specimen page: http://www.fishesoftexas.org /specimen/TNHC_1234

Splitting Lots upon Examination

If we examine a jar of specimens containing multiple specimens and they are determined to be different species it is necessary to break the record into more than one, and to differentiate them we add a parenthetical suffix. See example below:

FoTX unique identifier for a split lot (i.e., TNHC_1234 is discovered to have multiple species): TNHC_1234(1), TNHC_1234(2), TNHC_1234(3), etc.

Records Without Catalog Numbers

This system has always been fairly straightforward when our data only consisted of specimen-based records, because this system is more-or-less universally adopted by museums and familiar to users of museum data. With the inclusion of many more types of data in Version 3 this field has become somewhat more complicated although for museum specimens it remains unchanged. Much of the data are now not specimen-based and thus lack catalog numbers (catalog numbers refer to specimens), and instead usually have a unique database identifier with variable formats. When we were not provided a catalog number we now provide the unique database record identifier, if we received one. We also add the text "SourceID:" preceding the usually numeric identifier to allow users to distinguish, using the unique identifier alone, which records are specimen-based and which are not based on specimens. For example:

FoTX unique identifier for non-specimen record: FishBrain_SourceID_1234

Records Lacking Unique Identifiers

In some cases, the identifiers we received from our donors were not unique. This is exceedingly rare among the museum data since museums have universally implemented uniqueness among catalog numbers. But, for other sources of data this is not uncommon. Since our database schema requires that identifiers be unique, we add a parenthetical sequential suffix with the text "_(donor_dup[#])" ensuring they are. For example:

A set of FoTX unique identifiers for non-specimen records lacking a unique identifier: FishBrain_(donor-dup1), FishBrain_(donor-dup2), FishBrain_(donor-dup3)

A set of FoTX unique identifiers for non-specimen record with an identifier that is not unique: FishBrain_SourceID_1234(donor-dup1), FishBrain_SourceID_1234(donor-dup2), FishBrain_SourceID_1234(donor-dup3)