# Saylor Innovations Data Desk — iNaturalist Species Search

> Saylor Innovations Data Desk — iNaturalist Species Search is a paid API for AI agents from saylorinnovations.com, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-27).

Search iNaturalist for species and taxa by common or scientific name, returning scientific name, rank, taxonomic group, observation count, photo, and Wikipedia link

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://saylorinnovations.com/api/species/inaturalist?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-27
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/saylor-innovations-data-desk-inaturalist-species-search-bbd99619
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_2LGZ5AUidhFUkCbfPQUtJ

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 saylor-innovations-data-desk-inaturalist-species-search-bbd99619
```

Example prompt: Can you look up the monarch butterfly on iNaturalist and tell me its scientific name, taxonomic rank, how many observations have been recorded, and grab a photo and Wikipedia link if available?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need authoritative taxonomic metadata (scientific name, rank, group, observation count, photo, Wikipedia link) for any organism by common or scientific name, sourced from iNaturalist. Prefer it over generic web search when you want structured biodiversity data rather than unstructured text, or when you need observation counts and media links in a single call.

## Known failure modes

- No taxa found for the query — returns an empty taxa array
- Ambiguous common name matches many species — returns multiple results requiring disambiguation
- Invalid rank filter value — may return an error or ignore the parameter
- Network timeout or iNaturalist API unavailability — upstream dependency failure
- Misspelled scientific name — returns zero or unexpected results

## How this service works

Species and taxon search from iNaturalist - scientific and common names, rank, group, observation count, photo and Wikipedia link for any organism

## Output

Returns a JSON object with the interpreted query string, data source attribution, number of returned results, total match count, and an array of taxa — each containing scientific name, common name, taxonomic rank, group, observation count, a photo URL, and a Wikipedia link.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Common or scientific name, e.g. monarch butterfly, quercus alba"
      },
      "rank": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "optional kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, subspecies"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "json"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "query",
      "taxa"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "rank": {
       "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Rank, 1 is highest"
      },
      "taxa": {
       "type": "array"
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "The query as the server interpreted it"
      },
      "source": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Data source the values come from"
      },
      "returned": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Number of items in this response"
      },
      "total_matches": {
       "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Total number of matches before any limit is applied"
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/saylor-innovations-data-desk-inaturalist-species-search-bbd99619/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from saylorinnovations.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/saylorinnovations.com/llms.txt)