[tdwg-content] New Darwin Core terms proposed relating to material samples

[Gregor Hagedorn]

> Basically, we’ve been running with the idea of an “Individual” class – as
> originally proposed by Steve and discussed at some length on this list a
> while ago.  This has been documented for DSW:
>
> https://code.google.com/p/darwin-sw/wiki/ClassIndividual

> We define an “Individual” as the physical “something” that underpins an
> Occurrence.  In the case of organisms, this can be a group (herd, school,
> flock, etc.), specimen (either a single specimen, or a lot of multiple
> specimens), or any sort of derivative of a specimen (part, tissue sample,
> dna extraction, etc.).  It corresponds to the intended meaning of

I disagree with using "Individual" for sets of objects. It is
surprising, and lacking any clear definition when to stop, that means
a taxon is an individual, a collection is an individual, etc.