Darwin Core Issues 69 and 80: http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/list

This issue is related to the issue of Evidence (CollectionObject,
Representation, Token, Unit) covered in a previous posting. In the
Darwin Core there is currently no separate class to explicitly
represent the biological entities involved in an Occurrence. This is
problematic when trying to be explicit about the attributes of these
entities in the semantic world. Various names have been given to this
concept, including "Individual", "BiologicalIndividual",
"BiologicalEntity", "Organism", and "DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit" in
ABCD.

Open Issues:
Determine if there is a general consensus on the need for new class
for this concept.

The best name for this class.

Create a new Type Vocabulary term referring to this new class.

Decide which properties currently organized under Occurrence should
instead be organized under this new class.

As a seed for further discussion, here is a complete proposal.
==============
Term Name: BiologicalEntity
Identifier:     http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
Namespace:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
Label:  BiologicalEntity
Definition:     The category of information pertaining to an individual organism or
a group of organisms that can reliably be known to represent a single taxon.
Comment:         For discussion see
http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
Type of Term:   http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
Refines:
Status: recommended
Date Issued:    2011-07-04
Date Modified:  2011-07-04
Has Domain:
Has Range:
Version:        BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04
Replaces:
Is Replaced By:
Class:
ABCD 2.06:      {DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/CultureCollectionUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MycologicalUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/HerbariumUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/BotanicalGardenUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PlantGeneticResourceUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/ZoologicalUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PalaeontologicalUnit or
DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MultimediaObjects/MultimediaObject}

Term Name: BiologicalEntity
Identifier:     http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/BiologicalEntity
Namespace:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/
Label:  BiologicalEntity
Definition:     A resource describing an instance of the BiologicalEntity class.
Comment:         For discussion see
http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DwCTypeVocabulary
Type of Term:   http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
Refines:
Status: recommended
Date Issued:    2011-07-04
Date Modified:  2011-07-04
Member Of:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/DwCType
Has Domain:
Has Range:
Version:        BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04
Replaces:
Is Replaced By:
Class:
ABCD 2.06:      not in ABCD

Term Name: biologicalEntityID
Identifier:     http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityID
Namespace:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
Label:  biologicalEntityID
Definition:     An identifier for the set of information associated with
an BiologicalEntity. May be a global unique identifier or an
identifier specific to the data set.
Comment:        For discussion see
http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
Type of Term:   http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
Refines:        http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Status: recommended
Date Issued:    2011-07-04
Date Modified:  2011-07-04
Has Domain:
Has Range:
Version:        biologicalEntityID-2011-07-04
Replaces:       individualID-2009-04-24
Is Replaced By:
Class:  http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
ABCD 2.06:      DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/

Term Name: biologicalEntityRemarks
Identifier:     http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityRemarks
Namespace:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
Label:  biologicalEntityRemarks
Definition:     Comments or notes about the BiologicalEntity.
Comment:        Example: "seen several times in Tilden Park before capture".
For discussion see
http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/CollectionObject
Type of Term:   http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
Refines:
Status: recommended
Date Issued:    2011-07-04
Date Modified:  2009-07-04
Has Domain:
Has Range:
Version:        biologicalEntityRemarks-2011-07-04
Replaces:
Is Replaced By:
Class:  http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
ABCD 2.06:      DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Notes

Term Name: associatedBiologicalEntities
Identifier:     http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/associatedBiologicalEntities
Namespace:      http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
Label:  associatedBiologicalEntities
Definition:     A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers of
other BiologicalEntity records and their associations to this
BiologicalEntity.
Comment:        Example: "sibling of MXA-231; sibling of MXA-232". For
discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
Type of Term:   http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
Refines:
Status: recommended
Date Issued:    2011-07-04
Date Modified:  2011-07-04
Has Domain:
Has Range:
Version:        associatedBiologicalEntities-2011-07-04
Replaces:       associatedOccurrences-2009-04-24
Is Replaced By:
Class:  http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
ABCD 2.06:      DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceInstitutionCode
+ DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceName
+ DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitID

Terms to be organized under biologicalEntity rather than Occurrence:
previousIdentifications
associatedMedia
associatedReferences
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