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Search tips

Basic search: just type term or several terms into the search box, press Enter or click on the Search button.

Some basic rules

  • Searches use all words longer than one character.
  • All species are found where terms appears anywhere in the serach field, even as substring. A search for [ agama ] will find not only all species of genus Agama, but also Cryptagama, Dendragama and Xenagama.
  • Terms in all fields (e.g. genus, year) will be joined by AND operators.
  • Search is case insensitive. A search for [ agama ] is the same as a search for [ Agama ].
  • Special characters are ignored, except "'°-:

Extending operator

For most queries a basic search should return the most relevant results. For more complicated searches you can use several operators. Operators are inspired by Google.

  • AND operator: Optional. Same as space between terms. If used, use ALL CAPS. Example [ florida AND alabama ] in Distribution column is the same as [ florida alabama ] and finds all species which live in both states Florida and Alabama.
  • OR operator: Default behavior for multiple terms is AND. If you want to use either one of several words type 'OR' in ALL CAPS. For example, [ 2009 OR 2010 ] in Year column will find all species described in years 2009 or 2010. The OR operator has higher priority than the AND operator, so [ mexico AND florida OR alabama ] finds species which live in either Florida or Alabama and also in Mexico.
  • Exclude terms (-): Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word excludes records with this word. For example [ agama -xenagama ] in Genus column will find all species of genuses Agama, Cryptagama and Dendragama, but not Xenagama.
  • Search terms exactly (+): Attach a plus sign immediately before a word if you want to search for exact terms (not as a substring). For example [ +agama ] in Genus column will find all species of Agama without species of the genera Cryptagama and Dendragama and Xenagama.
  • Phrase search (""): Double quotes around a set of words finds the exact words in that exact order. For example [ North Australia ] in Distribution column will search just only records with 'North Australia' and not with 'Australia, North Korea'. Check 'Exact Match' checkbox: 'Exact match' is the same as putting all entered query in to double quotes. All content of edit box will be used as is with the exact words in that exact order without any change. In case of one word terms 'Exact Match', Phrase search ("") and Search terms exactly (+) give the same result.