Individual-based taxonomy

Representing evolutionary lineages using ontological individuals has some modeling advantages, and may be more realistic, compared with using a simple class hierarchy. We described some of the rationale in these ICBO conference proceedings. For the purposes of the Phenoscape KB, this model supports specification of the semantics of particular phenotype annotations: the phenotype applies to all members of a clade, is observed for some members, or is applied to the ancestor of the members.