List the synonyms of a name

The reverse of the forward resolution taxify() does: each input name is resolved to its accepted taxon, then every synonym that points to that accepted taxon in the backbone is returned. Useful for auditing which historical names collapse onto a current name.

Usage

synonyms(x, backbone = NULL, verbose = TRUE)

Arguments

x

Character vector of names (accepted names or synonyms; each is resolved to its accepted taxon first).

backbone

A single backbone name (e.g. "wfo") or a taxify_backend object. NULL (default) uses the highest-priority installed backbone.

verbose

Logical. Default TRUE.

Value

A data.frame with one row per synonym found, columns:

input_name

The queried name.

accepted_name

The accepted name the query resolved to.

synonym

A synonym of that accepted taxon.

authorship

Authorship of the synonym.

rank

Rank of the synonym.

taxon_id

Backend ID of the synonym.

backbone

Backend used.

Names that resolve to an accepted taxon with no synonyms contribute no rows.

See also

taxify() for the forward direction, children() to list the accepted taxa within a genus or family.

Examples

# Runs offline against the bundled example database.
old <- options(taxify.data_dir = taxify_example_data())

# Amphibolurus vitticeps is a synonym of Pogona vitticeps
synonyms("Pogona vitticeps", backbone = "reptiledb")

options(old)