NODC Standard Product: NODC Taxonomic Code on CD-ROM (NCEI Accession 0050418)

The content of the NODC Taxonomic Code, Version 8 CD-ROM (CD-ROM NODC-68) distributed by NODC is archived in this accession. Version 7 of the NODC Taxonomic Code (CD-ROM NODC-35), which does not include Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Numbers (TSNs), is also archived in this NODC accession.

Prior to 1996, the NODC Taxonomic Code was the largest, most flexible, and widely used of the various coding schemes which adapted the Linnean system of biological nomenclature to modern methods of data storage and retrieval. It was based on a system of code numbers that reflected taxonomic relationships. Hundreds of historic data collections archived at NODC use the NODC Taxonomic Code to encode species identification.

With the development and release of ITIS in 1996, NODC published the final version (Version 8) of the NODC Taxonomic Code on CD-ROM. This CD-ROM, provides NODC taxonomic codes along with the equivalent ITIS Taxonomic Serial Numbers to facilitate the transition to a new Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS, http://www.itis.gov/). With the publication of NODC Taxonomic Code Version 8, the NODC code was frozen and discontinued. ITIS assumed responsibility for assigning new TSN codes and for verifying accepted scientific names and synonyms.

More information about the Integrated Taxonomic Information System is available at http://www.itis.gov.