IRMNG export in Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A)

The link below provide access to the latest data dumps of IRMNG from kingdom down to genus in Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format. Please note that, so far as the compilers are aware, no restrictions on re-use for any purpose apply to IRMNG data to genus level. IRMNG data to species level (see below) incorporates some content from the Catalogue of Life, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and other providers and may be subject to their respective terms of use, for more information refer (e.g.) https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/colusage and www.marinespecies.org/about.php. Note that the data dumps below represent "snapshots" of the database at the cited date and that "live" data on the IRMNG site may continue to evolve as new records are added, gaps filled, and errors rectified where detected. The individual taxon pages on the IRMNG site also contain some additional content (information fields), especially in the area of references, not representable in the data dump.

Due to the variant nature of sources used to compile IRMNG, errors and inconsistencies may occasionally be present (especially at species level which have received less scrutiny than genera at this time); if you find such errors we would be happy to hear from you so that they can be rectified as resources are available.

IRMNG higher taxonomy for extant taxa is intended to eventually follow Ruggiero et al., "A higher level classification of all living organisms", PLoS One 10(4):e0119248, but has not yet been upgraded for all groups.

Where appropriate, IRMNG numeric identifiers (example, genus Sykidion E.P. Wright, 1881 has the IRMNG ID: 1344254) can be embedded in web documents as links of the format https://irmng.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1344254 , which will then link back to the latest version of the record in question on the IRMNG website.

If you find IRMNG content of value for your work we would appreciate an acknowledgment on your web page or printed work. A suggested form of citation of IRMNG is as follows: Rees, T. (compiler) (2024). The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera. Available from https://www.irmng.org at VLIZ. Accessed 2024-11-21

Additional details on the IRMNG database and its present content may be found in a paper by T. Rees et al. entitled "IRMNG 2006–2016: 10 years of a global taxonomic database" published in the journal "Biodiversity Informatics" in mid-2017 and available at https://journals.ku.edu/jbi/article/view/6522.

Downloads

Downloads are available at www.irmng.org/export

The latest version is always available in the root directory and it's name will not change.

Download notes

IRMNG data are available for download in the Darwin Core Archive (DwCA) format which is described more fully elsewhere on the web, e.g. see https://github.com/gbif/ipt/wiki/DwCAHowToGuide. The data are in tab-delimited format with no text qualifiers, and after unzipping are provided as .txt files that also can be opened as .csv if desired (simply rename e.g. taxon.txt to taxon.csv, reference.txt to reference.csv, speciesprofile.txt to speciesprofile.csv, ignoring any associated warnings).

As per those examples, the main data content is contained in three files: taxon names, IDs and associated basic information are in "taxon.txt", references are in "reference.txt", and habitat and extant/fossil status are in "speciesprofile.txt" (which contains values for the flags isMarine, isFreshwater, isTerrestrial, isExtinct). Data are encoded in the UTF-8 character set which is required to hold the full range of diacritical marks in use for taxon authority name in particular.

Note, the IRMNG DwCA "taxon" table can be opened in a text editor, but is likely too large (e.g. >500k rows) to be opened completely in MS Excel. If you import it to a database program e.g. MS Access it will be easier to manage and also rapid to review, sort/filter by any desired field or value, etc. The method below has been developed using MS Access on a Windows PC but other options are of course available.

Importing IRMNG data to MS Access using the "taxon.txt" table as an example

1. Download the desired file from www.irmng.org/export - latest will always be named "IRMNG_genera_DwCA.zip", or you can browse the archives as desired to find this or older versions of the download as needed.


2. As desired, rename the file from default (IRMNG_genera_DwCA.zip) to a preferred unique form e.g. IRMNG_genera_DwCA_2024-11-21.zip (or select that named file from the archive - latest will be the same as the current one) and unzip to a desired local directory (e.g. create the new directory /IRMNG_genera_DwCA_2024-11-21)


3. Rename the file taxon.txt to taxon.csv (??possibly not needed, but doing this enables the file (or leading portion) to also be opened in Excel for inspection as desired)


4. Open MS Access and create a new blank Access DB with a preferred location and name (e.g. IRMNG_genera_DwCA_2024-11-21.accdb)


5. From the "External data" tab, select import > text file and then the option "import the source data into a new table in the current database"


6. Browse to find "taxon.csv" as the data source in the relevant local directory, then use the following settings for import:


• data format is delimited, delimiter = tab
• data has header row ("First row contains field names"), text qualifier: {none}
• via "Advanced" settings:
• set encoding to UTF-8
• change the default date format to date order = YMD, delimiter = "-", leading zeros = yes
• change namePublishedIn field type to "long text" from the default which is "short text", otherwise this field will not load properly (** note, this is different from the field namePublishedInID which is OK to be short text)
• set taxonID to Indexed = "Yes (no duplicates)"
• deselect default option "Let Access add primary key", instead use "Choose my own primary key" with selection = "taxonID"


7. Choose a table name (the default "Taxon" is fine) and press "Finish" to do the import; you can save these import steps if desired to re-run in the future.

Note, the current IRMNG genera file contains over 500,000 rows, of which about 490,000 have taxonRank = Genus and the remainder are higher taxa. The file contains both presently "accepted" and "unaccepted" records. This version of the file is about 245 MB as an unzipped text/csv file and occupies about 520 MB when converted to a MS Access table.

Hopefully, the above steps should result in a correctly imported file with no errors. If the latter exist (will be placed in a separate "paste errors" table), review and use for any troubleshooting as needed, then delete that table before trying again, otherwise you will not easily see if any new errors have been created in a subsequent run.

If you want the references and species profile data as supplementary tables, use similar settings to import these files as well.

Please note that the web version of IRMNG may contain additional information on any taxon (for example notes fields) as well as child records (species) for genera which are not included in the download file. (Species data in IRMNG are not maintained as currently as genus records and may be out-of-date and/or contain errors not yet rectified, also some originate from systems that do not permit unrestricted onward distribution at this time). In addition, new content may have been added to the master version of IRMNG on the web which post-dates any specific data dump, but will be picked up next time an export file is created, typically once or twice per year.

IRMNG Release Notes

July 2024 version

• 508,851 genus names now held, June 2024 (was 500,077 in May 2023) - however may include some that may require deletion in future (c.1k are still "unverified")
• 8,839 new genera added (7,559 accepted): totals now 248,922 accepted (was 240,622), 259,929 other statuses including 123,125 "uncertain" (reduced from 123,552)
• 720 higher taxa added (families and above) (672 accepted)
• New accepted phylum names added: 2 (Nebulidia and Nibbleridia, both in Protozoa)
• New accepted class names added: 8 (Blastogregarinea, Muranotrichea, Parablepharismea and Rappephyceae in Chromista, Hexacorallia and Octocorallia in Cnidaria, Pilidiophora in Nemertea and Nibbleridea in Protozoa)
• Phylum Picozoa (microscopic eukaryotes) moved from Chromista to Plantae following Schön et al., 2021, who reassign them to Archaeplastida (=Plantae in IRMNG)
• Phylum Calcitarcha moved from Protozoa to Plantae, per original recommendation by Versteegh et al., 2009 that "the Calcitarcha be treated under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature", following similar move for Acritarcha per 2023 report
• Name for phylum Priapula (used in Ruggiero et al., 2015 and ITIS) changed to Priapulida, used in most other sources, WoRMS / World List of Priapulida, and Catalogue of Life as at 2024
• Phylum Vendobionta (early metazoan fossils, includes taxa alternatively known as Petalonamae, Proarticulata) reorganised mainly following Retallack, 2016, with input from various other sources; phylum Trilobozoa no longer recognised (now treated as phylum/class Vendobionta, order Aspidellomorpha)
• Phylum Xenacoelomorpha (a small animal phylum) revisted and content adjusted per Tyler & Schilling, 2011 and Jondelius et al., 2011, including previous order Acoelomorpha raised to subclass, various family names synonymised and other changes
• Portions of phylum Cnidaria extensively revised including introduction of Hexacorallia and Octocorallia as subclasses, numerous new families, and reallocation/editing of >400 associated genera following World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) (2024 version) and elsewhere
• introduced Tetrapoda as superclass, to contain Aves, Amphibia, Mammalia, Mammaliaformes incertae sedis and Reptilia, also unallocated Tetrapods
• formal category ("phylum") Problematica now deprecated, content now treated simply as Animalia incertae sedis (higher classification of c. 1,100 genus names thus changed)
• order Xiphosura is now a class, per Lamsdell, 2012 and Lamsdell, 2020; Euryptera removed from Merostomata, latter synonymised with Xiphosura; constituent genera of Xiphosura and related groups i.e. Chasmataspidida, Pseudoniscidae and Bunodidae revised per these 2 publications + others
• Algal class Rappephyceae (Haptophyta) re-introduced (previous record now treated as a nomen nudum) following formal description of its first member by Kawachi et al., 2021
• Over 7,000 new zoological genus-group names (genera plus subgenera) added, mainly covering the period 2015-2022, utilizing a file supplied by Rod Page / Bionames project, based on a subset of relevant content in ION supplemented with manual inspection of relevant literature. Note, subgenera in zoology (excepting the nominate subgenus) are available, but presently unaccepted names at genus level, so are entered as synonyms at genus rank in IRMNG at this time (IRMNG classification presently does not include subgenera as a populated rank between genus and species)
• All 2023 paleontological names that were documented by Wikipedia as of February 2024 and all new spider genera based on the World Spider Catalog as of May 2024.
• Classification at family level of extent Anura and fish has been checked again Frost, 2023 (as of June 2023) and Van der Laan, Eschmeyer & Fricke, 2014, respectively.
• Class Dipnoi has been reinstated, as well as family Cicindelidae (Coleoptera, per Duran & Gough, 2020)
• c.200 zoological trace fossil genera i.e. ichnotaxa (those due to bioerosion), including some previously in "Problematica", revised and placed in correct families per Wisshak et al., 2019; those formerly associated with the taxonomic placement of their presumed makers (e.g. borings attributed to "?Coleoptera") now all placed under "Trace fossils" per that treatment
• systematics ("parataxonomy") of c.100 ootaxa (fossil egg genera and families) updated following Mikhailov et al, 1996 , Hirsch, 1996, Lawver & Jackson, 2014, and other sources
• systematics of >300 genera of conodonts (fossil vertebrates) improved (many previously unallocated genera now allocated to families etc.) following Dzik, 1991
• The following groups have been fully updated based on published catalogues: Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera, Stonis et al., 2023), Oecanthidae (Orthoptera, De Campos et al., 2022) Thalattosuchia (Reptilia, Johnson, Young & Brusatte, 2020) and Promecheilidae (Coleoptera, Johnston & Matsumoto, 2023)
• Integration of other catalogues has also led to revision of various sets of names in Orthoptera (Desutter-Grandcolas et al., 2016), Gastropoda (Hyman, Caiza & Köhler, 2023), Ciliophora (Foissner, 2016), Phthiraptera (Gustafsson & Bush, 2020), Nudibranchia (Korshunova et al., 2017)
• class Thylacocephala (fossil arthropods) revised following Schram, 2014, Mantodea (mantises , >400 genera) (Schwarz & Roy, 2019), order Cyclida (Crustacea) (Schweitzer et al., 2020) and more.
• a range of other fixes and corrections were made as discovered during internal review, or as notified by users.

May 2023 version

• Milestone reached - >500,000 genus names now held (actual: 500,077), May 2023 (was c.487k in 2016, c.492k in 2020) - however may include some that may require deletion in future (c.1k are still "unverified")
• 3,068 new genera added (2,424 accepted): totals now 240,622 accepted (was 237,053), 259,455 other statuses including 123,552 "uncertain" (was 126,298)
• 251 higher taxa added (families and above) (235 accepted)
• New accepted phylum names added: 0; new accepted class names added: 4, i.e. Clitellata (now has Hirudinea, Oligochaeta as subclasses, Branchiobdellida as unplaced order), per Ruggiero et al., 2015; Ceratiomyxomycetes, Dictyosteliomycetes and Myxomycetes (all previously held under other names) per Wijayawardene et al., 2022
• Higher taxon Eumycetozoa introduced, to contain classes Ceratiomyxomycetes, Dictyosteliomycetes and Myxomycetes, as per Wijayawardene et al., 2022; treated in IRMNG as suphylum of Amoebozoa (phylum), although treated as phylum (with Amoebozoa presumably at higher rank) elsewhere e.g. Catalogue of Life, 2022 version (relevant IRMNG higher taxonomy may be revisited at a later date)
• Orders and families of Ceratiomyxomycetes, Dictyosteliomycetes and Myxomycetes returned to botanical treatment (cf. zoological treatment previously introduced, following Ruggiero et al., 2015) per Wijayawardene et al., 2022 and other recent sources e.g. Leontyev et al., 2019
• Phylum Acritarcha (organic walled microfossils of uncertain origin) moved from kingdom Protozoa to Plantae (parallel to "Algae incertae sedis", also currently under Plantae) since their nomenclature is typically governed by the botanical Code, and at least the earliest forms are probably related to Chlorophyta, refer Moczydlowska et al., 2011.
• Various fossil wood species (conifers) updated per Philippe & Bamford, 2008 and elsewhere
• Completion of recent (2010-2022) literature search for new or changed fossil plant genus names (>300 names added)
• Last 2 decades (2000-2022) of name status changes recommended by the Committee for Fossil Plants (Skog, 2001 through Herendeen, 2022 all incorporated
• >200 fossil mammal genera from McKenna & Bell compilation, previously uploaded with incorrect higher taxonomy (generally were incorrectly placed to a family but should be incertae sedis), now corrected per original of that work and later sources as available
• Several hundred fossil vertebrate genera moved from "unassessed" to "assessed" status (i.e., accepted name or synonym), in particular mammals, 1990-current
• Start made on gap filling of zoological genera not previously entered, covering years 2015-2021 approx., with accompanying new families. etc. as required (more to do)
• All 2022 paleontological names that were documented by Wikipedia as of February-March 2022 have been added. So were 2022 fish genera based on Eschmeyer's Catalogue and spider genera based on the World Spider Catalog.
• Missing Fulguroidea names have been added based on FLOW.
• All accepted Diptera family names have had authorship assigned following Sabrosky, 1999.
• The following groups have been fully updated based on published catalogues: Tenebrionidae (Bouchard et al., 2021, Coleoptera), Rhagophthalmidae (Kundrata et al, 2022, Coleoptera), Thaumaleidae (Sinclair et al., 2022, Diptera).
• Integration of other catalogues has also led to revision of various sets of names in Diptera (Verves et al., 2022, O'Hara et al., 2011), Coleoptera (Gimmel & Leschen, 2022, Keller & Branham, 2021, parts of Monné, 2012), Hymenoptera (Huber et al., 2020, 2021), Lepidoptera (Zhang et al., 2022) and Sordariomycetes (Wu & Diao, 2022)
• a range of other fixes and corrections were made as discovered during internal review (e.g. several hundred incorrectly or superfluously formatted names for some Chinese authors, some fossil mammal genera taxonomic placement incorrect), or as notified by users.

May 2022 version

• 3,229 new genera added (2,619 accepted): now 497,128 genus names held (237,053 accepted, 260,072 other statuses including 126,298 "uncertain")
• 276 higher taxa added (families and above) (244 accepted)
• Accepted phylum names added: 2, i.e Eophyta (fossil plants, informal name), Prasinodermatophyta (extant algae)
• Accepted class names added: 10, i.e. Chytridiopsidea, Developea, Galeaspida (fossil fishes), Microsporidea, Myzodinea, Noctiluciphyceae, Pirsonea, Prasinodermatophyceae, Syndiniophyceae, Zygnematophyceae (was Conjugatophyceae)
• treatment of "algae" generally reviewed and updated per recent literature, 2016-2020 approx.; class Algospongia completely revised per Vachard & Cózar, 2010, however treated as an algal, not zoological class in IRMNG, following Vachard, 2021
• "Nematophytes" (early land plants??) restored as an accepted, but possibly polyphyletic group following Edwards et al., 2018 and elsewhere
• phylum Microsporidia transferred from Protozoa to Fungi (Rozellomycota) and re-ranked as subphylum (Microsporidia) and transferred to Fungi (Rozellomycota) per Wijayawardene et al., 2020, with microsporidian genera and other ranks reallocated as per this treatment; class Rozellea (previously Protozoa) reallocated to phylum Rozellomycota in Fungi as per same work
• genus entries in fossil spores and pollen (IRMNG "phylum" Sporae dispersae) extensively validated (many moved from "uncertain" to "accepted name", "synonym", etc.) according to recent regional or ecological-based treatments; spores (only) previously allocated to "Fungi" moved to Sporae dispersae for consistency
• several small groups of microfossils added, not previously held, including "vase-shaped microfossils" (VSMs in current literature), now in Arcellinida (Protozoa), and "scale microfossils", presently in Problematica
• treatment of mammal orders and, in some case, families adjusted for consistency with Ruggiero, 2014 (extant families), Ruggiero et al., 2015 (extant orders and higher taxonomic placement), plus other sources for fossils, including introduction of intermediate ranks (e.g. Metatheria, Eutheria) where not previously inserted
• all "2021 paleontological names" that were documented by Wikipedia as of mid-February 2022 have been added
• the Dejean generic names project (Bouchard & Bousquet, 2013) has been completed. This has included the cleanup of numerous duplicate names as well as the discovery and documentation of several overlooked names (Girard & Jealous, 2020; Girard & Tavakilian, 2022; Girard & Jealous, in prep.)
• the following groups have been fully revised based on published catalogues: order Thysanoptera (Mound & Hastenpflug-Vesmanis, 2021, with an addenda and corrigenda in prep by Girard), order Macroscelidea (Senut & Pickford, 2021), Acarida families Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae (Nielsen et al., 2021, vaid names only), fish family Serranidae (Parenti & Randall, 2020) and millipede family Xystodesmidae (Means et al, 2021)
• integration of other catalogues has also lead to revision of various sets of names in Coleoptera (Kavanaugh et al., 2021, Girón & Short, 2021, Bousquet et al, 2018, Bousquet, 2012, Bouchard et al., 2021 with A's completed), Lepidoptera (Cong et al., 2019, Zhang et al., 2021, Zhang et al., 2022), Diptera (Evenhuis & Pont, 2004, Evenhuis & al., 2010, Lonsdale, 2021), Embioptera (Szumik et al., 2022), Cicadellidae (Zahniser, 2021, Pinedo-Escatel et al., 2021) and Chrysididae (Rosa et al., 2021)
• a range of other fixes and corrections were made as discovered during internal review, or as notified by users.

May 2021 version

• 1,802 new genera added (1,408 accepted) including animal names plus Chromista and some Fungi from recent primary literature
• 305 higher taxa added (families and above) (281 accepted)
• 3,373 sources added since previous version, plus over 10,000 page-level edits to taxon pages
• The number of "uncertain, unassessed" genera was reduced slightly (was 131,676, now 129,435)
• Verified all extant+fossil families of Lepidoptera as per van Nieukerken et al., 2011 (plus some more recent sources), synonymise as necessary - e.g. Arctiidae, Lymantriidae are now subfamilies of Erebidae Leach, 1815
• Added fossil flags for a number of Lepidopteran genera (and species) incorrectly flagged as extant
• Reviewed taxonomic status and placement of all fossil Lepidopteran genera (including unassessed/unassigned ones) + some others now assigned elsewhere, as per Sohn et al., 2012
• Cleanup of fossil Lobopoda (class Xenusia)
• Revision of status/consolidation of some names assigned to Dejean/Guérin/Guérin-Méneville (not Ménéville any longer)
• Consolidation/removal/annotation as needed of some duplicated records (same year, same or similar authority), some genuine, some database artifacts
• Added 4 new algal classes (Palmophyllophyceae, Chrysoparadoxophyceae, Phaeosacciophyceae and Olisthodicophyceae) as per Leliaert et al., 2016, Wetherbee et al., 2018 ("2019"), Graf et al., 2020 and Barcyte et al., 2021
• Diatoms (previously single class Bacillariophyceae within Ochrophyta) restructured as per Medlin, 2016 and AlgaeBase (2021 version): now 3 classes (Bacillariophyceae, Coscinodiscophyceae, Mediophyceae), within phylum Bacillariophyta (effectively, sister to Ochrophyta) at this time
• Algal order Paraphysomonadida (Chrysophyceae) returned to botanical treatment (as Paraphysomonadales) for consistency with other orders in the same class, as per Kapustin & Guiry, 2019, their new family name Lepidochromonadaceae used in place of Clathromonadidae Scoble & Vavalier-Smith, 2014 (illegitimate name in botany)
• Restored the small algal classes Pelagophyceae and Synchromophyceae (previously included in Dictyochophyceae and Picophagophyceae, respectively, in Ruggiero et al., 2015) following AlgaeBase (2021 version)
• Updated/checked higher classification of some algal groups (especially in Chromista), removed redundant families etc.
• Placement and status of a subset of calcareous nannofossil genera (Haptophyta) upgraded according to the Nannotax3 website (Young et al., 2021)
• Cleaned up higher classification of Bryozoan orders in class Stenolaemata, mainly following www.bryozoa.net (with one exception as per WoRMS)
• Added class Staurozoa in Cnidaria (for Stauromedusae)
• A large number of names authored by Dejean (up to longicornes) have been updated (Bousquet & Bouchard, 2013), with many more (i.e. synonyms, homonyms) affected in the process
• Some amount of unassessed and unsorted names in Coleoptera have been assigned to families, usually with updated status
• Spider names in families up to Euctenizidae have been matched to the World Spider Catalogue as much as could be done
• Data from a number of other published catalogues have been integrated affecting many names in Coleoptera (Alonso-Zaraaga & Lyal, 2009, Moore et al., 2018, Chamorro et al., 2019, Bousquet et al., 2015, Bousquet et al., 2018), Tardigrada (Degma et al., 2020), Zoantharia (Low et al., 2016) and Dothideomycetes (Hongsanan et al., 2020a, Hongsanan et al., 2020b, Dong et al., 2020), amongst others
• A range of other fixes and corrections were made as discovered during internal review, or as notified by users.

March 2020 version

• 2,690 new genera added (2,230 accepted) including animal names from ION (to 2014) and more recent primary literature, fungal names from MycoBank (to 2013)
• 817 higher taxa added (families and above) (739 accepted)
• Order Isoptera (termites) now dropped as per recent treatments, contents merged with Blattodea
• Classes Chilopoda, Pauroda and Symphyla reorganised following Minelli, 2011 and elsewhere
• Contents of previous "Myriapoda (awaiting allocation" reviewed and allocated to classes Diplopoda, Chilopoda, etc. as appropriate (permits display of more accurate totals for those classes)
• New algal phylum Rhodelphidia (sister to Rhodophyta) added as per Gawryluk et al., 2019
• Phylum Kinorhyncha reorganised following Sørensen et al., 2015
• Updates to higher classification of Protozoa and Chromista following publications by Cavalier-Smith and co-workers
• Orthonectids (families Pelmatosphaeridae and Rhopaluridae) moved from phylum Rhombozoa (incorrect placement) to phylum Orthonectida, in new order Plasmodigenea
• Archaeocyatha, previously a separate phylum, now treated as a class of Porifera
• New "kingdom" introduced for "Questionable / non-biota (fossil)" to include pseudofossils and probable non-biotic fossil taxa, whose names remain in relevant nomenclature for purposes of homonymy, etc. (also may be revived in the future)
• Families (in this case with zoological endings, in otherwise botanically named group) introduced for Precambrian stromatolites {treated as Cyanobacteria), based on Raaben et al., 2001
• Range of other fixes and corrections made as discovered during internal review, or as notified by users.

March 2019 version

• Around 126,000 genera of uncertain status (unassessed), previously listed as "accepted", now moved to new category "uncertain" with unaccept reason = "unassessed"
• Review/update of higher taxa of fossil plants from Novikoff & Barabasz-Krasny, 2015 completed, additional genera contained in Taylor et al. 2009 (book) added
• Various misspelled genera of algae listed in error as "accepted" in last release now set to "unaccepted"
• Class Entognatha deleted, previous orders Collembola, Diplura and Protura elevated to classes following Ruggiero et al., 2015; 7 new orders added within Collembola and Protura
• Phylum Euglenozoa reorganised as per Cavalier-Smith, 2016 including new subphyla, 3 new classes, 12 new orders and 24 new families for existing plus 4 new genera
• Various new higher taxa introduced including protozoan phylum Aphelida (post Ruggiero treatment)
• Protozoan phylum Hemimastogophora reinstated based on Lax et al., 2018 (was previously in Sulcozoa)
• Viruses completely revised as per ICTV database 2017 (March 2018 release) including 3 new orders, 38 new families and 465 new genera; previously listed genera and families either validated or synonymised (128 new genus synonyms) as required. Now 851 accepted genera of viruses and prions (including "placeholders" for unassigned species in particular families)
• Archaea revised as per List of Names with Standing in Prokaryotic Nomenclature (LPSN), July 2018 version, including 1 new class, 4 new orders, 10 new families and 37 new genera
• Bacteria (other than Cyanobacteria) extensively revised as per List of Names with Standing in Prokaryotic Nomenclature (LPSN), July 2018 version, including 6 new phylum names, 36 new classes, 63 new orders, 137 new families and 1,064 new genera, with placement of existing genera updated as needed
• Cyanobacteria revised as per Komárek, J.; Kaštovský, J.; Mareš, J.; Johansen, J. R. (2014). Taxonomic classification of cyanoprokaryotes (cyanobacterial genera) 2014, using a polyphasic approach. Preslia. 86: 295-335 (some additional names/placements from CyanoDB.cz, January 2019 version) - 5 new families, 23 new genera, with placement of existing genera updated as needed
• Changed/consolidated some order names in Bivalvia e.g. Arcoida, Hippuritoida, Nuculanoida, Ostraeoida, Pectinoida, Solemyoida to Arcida, Hippuritida, Nuculanida, etc. as per current WoRMS usage
• Additional minor fixes and corrections made as discovered, or notified by users.

Statistics for the March 2019 version:

• 236,514 "accepted" genera
• 120,194 "unaccepted" genera
• 7,391 genera of other status (e.g. interim unpublished, nomen dubium, nomen nudum, taxon inquirendum, temporary name)
• 125,996 "uncertain" genera - mainly these are unassessed at present (will comprise a mix of eventual accepted, unaccepted, or other)

March 2018 version

• Higher taxonomic categories of land plants extensively revised in accordance with the treatment of Ruggiero et al., 2015 for extant forms, together with an analogous treatment for extinct forms, in particular:
  
  • classes Anthoceratopsida (hornworts) and Hepaticopsida (liverworts) now raised to separate phyla (Anthocerotophyta, Marchantiophyta), no longer within Bryophyta
  • phylum Tracheophyta created for all vascular plants, with new subphyla Lycopodiophytina, Polypodiophytina and Spermatophytina for lycopods, ferns (including horsetails), and seed plants, respectively
  • Equisetopsida (horsetails) no longer a separate class or phylum, now a subclass (Equisetidae) within ferns
  • class Lycopsida (lycopods) no longer in ferns but within its own subphylum, also changed name (now Lycopodiopsida)
  • former phyla Gymnosperophyta and Magnoliophyta are now superclasses (Gymnospermae, Angiospermae) within subphylum Spermatophytina of phylum Tracheophyta, phylum Pteridophyta is now a subphylum (Polypodiophytina)
  • Welwitschiales and Ephedrales are now combined with Gnetales (treatment of Ruggiero et al.), although other sources maintain these as distinct
• treatment of extinct plant groups revised for better alignment with recent systems, in particular that of Novikoff & Barabasz-Krasny, 2015 for families/classes/orders, while remaining congruent with the treatment of extant forms as above; new families and classes created as required (work is ongoing)
• numerous fossil plant genera not previously allocated to family (also without accepted/synonym status yet held) now upgraded in those respect (work is ongoing)
• treatment of extant ferns largely upgraded based on the most recent work (e.g. PPG 1, 2016) including generic reallocations and several families split or combined
• c. 1,650 new genera of extant flowering plants + ferns added, based on additions to IPNI (International Plant Name Index) for the period 2010-2017, plus a small number of extinct forms where not previously held
• other errors and inconsistencies rectified where apparent (mainly concerning changes from "accepted" to "unaccepted" status for certain batches of genera, also incorrect "rank" indications for certain higher taxa as contained in the previous download file)

December 2017 version

• Inspected c.500 families previously unplaced to order, upgraded the taxonomic placement of the majority of these as data available
• Added correct status, synonyms for 350+ rejected plant genus names previously listed as "accepted"
• Reviewed 300+ duplicated names in Protozoa and Chromista, updated status and synonymy as needed
• Added some fossil flags to a subset of Diptera species and genera incorrectly listed as extant (from Catalogue of Life 2006)
• Added some>100 new references, others deduplicated and consolidated
• Added some newly published orders and other higher taxa as needed
• Added a small number of additional genus names
• Revised the higher taxonomy of non-Chromist algal groups (reds, greens, glaucophytes, euglenoids) to follow Ruggiero et al., 2015, in the main
• Reviewed habitat flags for all genera of extant fishes, 2,600 genera updated
• A range of ad hoc corrections to attributes for individual taxon names as discovered since the April 2017 release.

April 2017 version

This is the first IRMNG release sourced from its new (2016) location (www.irmng.org) for any queries please contact the database management team via info@irmng.org.

• Around 17,500 additional genus names have been added (including new animal names to around mid 2014, sourced from BioNames/ION database, plus update from WoRMS, October 2016)
• Extant/fossil status has been added for around 16,000 genus names where not previously held
• Kingdoms Protozoa and Chromista have been added for consistency with the 2015 higher classification of Ruggiero et al., PLoS One 10(4):e0119248, previous members of kingdom Protista distributed accordingly
• The status of all metazoan and protist (Protozoa + Chromista) phyla has been checked and amended as needed, also protist classes
• Intermediate ranks have been added between kingdom and class for all protists as per the treatment of Ruggiero et al., existing names have been re-ranked as required (e.g. Foraminifera is now a subphylum)
• Phylum Charophyta has been introduced for Charophytes and related classes (previously in phylum Chlorophyta)
• (Subphylum) name Urochordata is now used in place of Tunicata
• Subphyla have been introduced for phyla Arthropoda and Chordata for the first time
• Angiosperm orders, families and some genera have been rearranged as per the treatment of APG IV, 2016 (Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 181: 1-20)
• A small number of ad hoc fixes have been made to individual taxon and authority names as discovered by or reported to IRMNG editors.

In the accompanying web version to this release, references are gradually being added as full citations, in place of the abbreviated versions previously used.

Note, with the exception of a small number of ad hoc corrections as above, plus the removal of some names (principally errors) now deleted from WoRMS, the species component of IRMNG is not greatly changed since the previous (2014) release.