Homonym Hunters

Homonyms are scientific names that apply to more than one taxon. Within a given kingdom, scientists go through some lengths to avoid the use of homonyms. But across kingdoms homonyms are actually quite common. For example, take the familiar plant genus Iris. Did you know there's also a genus of mantids by that very name?


Homonyms are the bioinformatician's worst nightmare. If a computer encounters the name Iris, there's no way for it to know which Iris is meant without special instructions. Unfortunately, not all the data EOL gets from its content partners come with these special instructions. This is why we need help in hunting down homonyms in our names infrastructure, so we can keep an eye on them and fix problems as they arise. If you are interested in participating in the hunt, please join this community and post the homonyms you find in the Community Newsfeed. Happy hunting!


The Newsfeed for this EOL Community gathers updates associated with the items belonging to its Managed Collections, including activities of its members and comments from other EOL users.

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