Montanaro Giulio, Tarasov Sergei
Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland.
Biodivers Data J. 2024 Oct 21;12:e134364. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.12.e134364. eCollection 2024.
The dung beetle genus (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae, Scarabaeini), predominantly found in the arid regions of the Old World, includes three endemic species inhabiting the dry ecosystems of western and southern Madagascar. These species are presumed to form a monophyletic clade nested within the African .Semantic modelling of phenotypes using ontologies represents a transformative approach to species description in biology, making phenotypic data FAIR and computable. The recently developed Phenoscript language enables the creation of semantic, computable species descriptions using a syntax akin to human natural language (NL). However, Phenoscript has not yet been tested as a tool for describing new taxa.
In this study, we test the utility of Phenoscript by describing a new species, sp. nov. from Madagascar. The initial description is composed directly in Phenoscript, replacing the traditional natural language format. This Phenoscript description is then translated into a human-readable form using the Phenospy tool for publication purposes. Additionally, the Phenoscript description is converted into an RDF graph, making it understandable by computers using semantic technologies. sp. nov. is found in western central Madagascar and is closely related to (Paulian, 1953) from north-western Madagascar. We provide an updated identification key and distribution map for all Malagasy and discuss their systematic placement.
蜣螂属（鞘翅目，金龟亚科，金龟族）主要分布于东半球的干旱地区，其中有三个特有物种栖息在马达加斯加西部和南部的干旱生态系统中。这些物种被认为形成了一个嵌套在非洲蜣螂属内的单系分支。使用本体对表型进行语义建模是生物学中物种描述的一种变革性方法，可使表型数据具有FAIR性且可计算。最近开发的Phenoscript语言能够使用类似于人类自然语言（NL）的语法创建语义化、可计算的物种描述。然而，Phenoscript尚未作为描述新分类单元的工具进行测试。
在本研究中，我们通过描述一种来自马达加斯加的新物种——新种，来测试Phenoscript的实用性。初始描述直接用Phenoscript编写，取代了传统的自然语言格式。然后，使用Phenospy工具将这个Phenoscript描述翻译成人类可读的形式以供发表。此外，Phenoscript描述被转换为RDF图，以便计算机使用语义技术理解。新种发现于马达加斯加中西部，与马达加斯加西北部的（保罗ian，1953年）关系密切。我们提供了所有马达加斯加蜣螂属的最新鉴定检索表和分布图，并讨论了它们的系统位置。
