Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language
Published on: October 13, 2018
Extraction of phenotypic traits from taxonomic descriptions for the tree of life using natural language processing
Lorena Endara1, Hong Cui2, J Gordon Burleigh1
1Department of Biology University of Florida Gainesville Florida 32611 USA.
Premise Of The Study:
Phenotypic data sets are necessary to elucidate the genealogy of life, but assembling phenotypic data for taxa across the tree of life can be technically challenging and prohibitively time consuming. We describe a semi-automated protocol to facilitate and expedite the assembly of phenotypic character matrices of plants from formal taxonomic descriptions. This pipeline uses new natural language processing (NLP) techniques and a glossary of over 9000 botanical terms.
Methods And Results:
Our protocol includes the Explorer of Taxon Concepts (ETC), an online application that assembles taxon-by-character matrices from taxonomic descriptions, and MatrixConverter, a Java application that enables users to evaluate and discretize the characters extracted by ETC. We demonstrate this protocol using descriptions from Araucariaceae.
Conclusions:
The NLP pipeline unlocks the phenotypic data found in taxonomic descriptions and makes them usable for evolutionary analyses.
More Related Videos
12:22Transforming, Genome Editing and Phenotyping the Nitrogen-fixing Tropical Cannabaceae Tree Parasponia andersonii
Published on: August 18, 2019
09:48Employing Pressurized Hot Water Extraction PHWE to Explore Natural Products Chemistry in the Undergraduate Laboratory
Published on: November 7, 2018
Related Concept Videos
The Tree of Life - Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryotes
The Tree of Life - Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes
Polygenic Traits
What is Natural Selection?
Multiple Allele Traits
Trait and State Self-Esteem