# Marine Species Taxonomic Lookup

> Marine Species Taxonomic Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from natur.halowerk.com, paid per call via x402, $0.004/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Looks up a marine organism by name in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and returns the accepted name, AphiaID, authority, rank, full classification, and taxonomic status with precise status terminology.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://natur.halowerk.com/v1/marine-species
- Price: $0.004/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/marine-species-taxonomic-lookup-cf977f7d
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_9QyCy-ewQMMUF27xJFcT_

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability marine-species-taxonomic-lookup-cf977f7d -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you look up 'Tursiops truncatus' in the marine species register and tell me its accepted name, AphiaID, full taxonomic classification, and whether that name is currently accepted or if there's a different preferred name?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need authoritative, taxonomically precise information about a marine species name — especially when correctness of nomenclature matters (scientific publishing, biodiversity databases, regulatory compliance). Prefer this over generalist aggregators when you need the exact WoRMS-curated status term (e.g. distinguishing 'nomen dubium' from 'alternate representation') rather than a simple valid/invalid flag. Ideal for resolving synonyms, validating dataset names, or building species-level metadata for marine organisms.

## Known failure modes

- Name not found in the register — returns no match or empty result
- Ambiguous name matching multiple taxa — may return multiple candidates or require disambiguation
- Network or upstream WoRMS service unavailability — returns 5xx error
- Malformed input (empty or non-string name) — returns 4xx validation error
- Name is known but lacks a resolved accepted form — status returned without accepted name

## How this service works

Looks a marine organism up in the taxonomically curated register rather than in an aggregator, and returns the accepted name with its AphiaID, the authority, the rank, the full classification and the recorded status. Where the queried name is not the accepted one, the accepted name is given together with the status term that explains why — unaccepted, alternate representation, nomen dubium and the rest each mean something different to a taxonomist and are passed through rather than flattened…

## Output

Returns the accepted scientific name with its AphiaID, the taxonomic authority (author and year), the rank, a full classification hierarchy from kingdom to species level, and a precise status term (accepted, unaccepted, alternate representation, nomen dubium, etc.). When the queried name is not the accepted one, the accepted name is provided alongside the specific status explaining why.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "name": {
   "type": "string",
   "maxLength": 200,
   "minLength": 2,
   "description": "Scientific name, e.g. Gadus morhua."
  },
  "fuzzy": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "default": false,
   "description": "Allow approximate matching. Off by default because a near miss in taxonomy is a wrong answer."
  },
  "marine_only": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "default": false,
   "description": "Restrict to taxa the register marks as marine."
  },
  "include_synonyms": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "default": true
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/marine-species-taxonomic-lookup-cf977f7d/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from natur.halowerk.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/natur.halowerk.com/llms.txt)