Catalogue of Life API

REST API providing access to the Catalogue of Life's taxonomic database, offering species lookup, dataset browsing, and hierarchical classification traversal across all known organisms on Earth.

Slug: catalogueoflife
Key: catalogueoflife.org:catalogue-of-life-api
Base URL: https://api.catalogueoflife.org/
Auth: none
Endpoints: 12
Reachable: unknown
CORS: unknown
Tier: verified

Links

Homepage: https://www.catalogueoflife.org
API Base: https://api.catalogueoflife.org/

Topics

KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE

Tutorials

Getting Started with the Catalogue of Life API — I can look up taxonomic classification, accepted scientific names, and expert review provenance for any of the ~2.3 million species in the Catalogue of Life — no API key required, but every query must target a specific release dataset key.

Skills

Look up species taxonomy — I can look up the full taxonomic classification and expert review provenance for any species in the Catalogue of Life (~2.3 million species) by scientific name — no API key required, but every query must target a specific release dataset key.

Endpoints (6)

Path	Summary	Response	Auth
dataset/{datasetKey}	Get dataset details	`application/json`	none
dataset/{datasetKey}/nameusage	List name usages in a dataset	`application/json`	none
dataset/{datasetKey}/nameusage/search	Search name usages with full-text search	`application/json`	none
dataset/{datasetKey}/taxon/{id}	Get taxon details by ID	`application/json`	none
dataset/{datasetKey}/taxon/{id}/info	Get taxon information	`application/json`	none
dataset/{datasetKey}/tree/{id}/children	Get child taxa in classification tree	`application/json`	none