Documentation for Malacolog 4. A database of Western Atlantic Marine Mollusks.

The master copy of Malacolog 4 is a Paradox relational database consisting of a flatter set of tables (approximating the wasp, bibliography, families, trivial gender, and genera tables described here, with current name, distribution, and ocean_distribution created as part of the upload process). This documentation describes the web copy of the data, which are produced by transforming and normalizing the Paradox data in a MS Access database and then storing them in a mySQL database on a webserver.

This documentation is intended to describe the structure of the Malacolog 4 database, which inherits significant non-normal features from its origin as a two table databatabase in the late 1980s. It is not intended to be used as the basis for other biodiversity or nomenclatural databases.

Malacolog itself should be cited as: Rosenberg, G. 2005. Malacolog 4.0: A database of Western Atlantic marine Mollusca. [WWW database (version 4.0.1)] URL http://data.acnatsci.org/wasp.

This documentation and the web search interface should be cited as: Morris, P.J. and G. Rosenberg, 2005. Search interface and documentation for Malacolog, an online database of Western Atlantic marine Mollusks. [WWW database (version 4.0.1)] URL http://data.acnatsci.org/wasp/helpfindingsnails.html.

Relationship Cardinalities:

Each specific name (wasp) has zero to many distributions.

Each distribution is for one and only one specific name (wasp).

Each distribution involves one and only one locality.

Each locality is involved in one to many distributions.

Each specific name (wasp) has zero to many ocean_distributions.

Each ocean_distribution is for one and only one specific name (wasp).

Each ocean_distribution involves one and only one ocean.

Each ocean is involved in one to many ocean_distributions.

Each specific name (wasp) has zero or one type reference in the bibliography.

Each bibliographic reference is the type reference for zero to many specific names (wasp).

[The bibliography contains references that are listed in wasp.references, but this field hasn't yet been parsed out to link each specific name to many references and each reference to one to many specific names].

Each specific name (wasp) has one and only one currentname.

Each currentname is the current name for one to many specific names (wasp).

[Formally, each specific name may have zero or one current names, and tthe not null constraint is not enforced in the database, as some versions have contained a few names (mostly extralimital) that have not been fully researched. This condition is checked in the upload process, and is usually fixed before a new version is put up.]

Each specific name is a member of a family.

Each family contains zero to many specific names.

Each specific name (wasp) has a trivial gender.

Each trivialgender is the gender and part of speech of the available name of zero to many specific names (wasp)

Each current name has a trivial gender.

Each trivial gender is the gender and part of speech of the specific part of zero to many current names.

Each genus in genera is the gender for an original genus of a specific name (wasp).

Each original genus of a specific name (wasp) has a gender in genera.

The supporting tables are not involved in any relationships.

ER Views
Name	Description
overview	Entities in the malacolog 4 web database.
details	Entities and attributes in the malacolog 4 web database.