WoRMS Marine Species API
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as an API — the authoritative, expert-curated taxonomic register of the world's marine life, maintained by a global network of taxonomists. WoRMS provides the accepted scientific names, naming authorities, taxonomic status and synonymy, full classification and vernacular (common) names for marine species. /v1/search?name=Orcinus orca searches species by scientific name (set fuzzy=true for partial matching, marine_only=true to restrict to marine taxa), returning each match's AphiaID (WoRMS' stable identifier), accepted name, authority, rank, taxonomic status, valid name and higher classification. /v1/species?id=137102 returns a species' full record by AphiaID — name and authority, status, the kingdom-to-genus classification, marine and brackish flags, and citation. /v1/classification?id=137102 returns the complete taxonomic tree from Biota down to the taxon, rank by rank. /v1/vernaculars?id=137102 returns the common names with their language. Get an AphiaID from /v1/search, then look up its details, tree or common names. Ideal for marine biology, fisheries science, ecology, aquaculture and biodiversity-data harmonisation. Data from WoRMS (CC BY). This is authoritative marine taxonomy and nomenclature — distinct from species-occurrence/biodiversity databases (such as GBIF) and from sequence or genome databases.
api.oanor.com/worms-api