# Saylor Innovations Fossil Taxon Lookup

> Saylor Innovations Fossil Taxon Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from saylorinnovations.com, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-17).

Looks up a fossil taxon by name in the Paleobiology Database, returning its classification, occurrence count, and geological age range in millions of years.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://saylorinnovations.com/api/paleontology/taxon?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-17
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/saylor-innovations-fossil-taxon-lookup-ebcff72b
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_hPi84_5k0M_fU54dtgqOV

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-fossil-taxon-lookup-ebcff72b
```

Example prompt: Can you look up the fossil taxon Tyrannosaurus rex and tell me its taxonomic classification, geological age range, and how many fossil occurrences are recorded?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need authoritative paleontological data — taxonomy, geological age, and occurrence counts — for an extinct taxon by scientific name. It wraps the Paleobiology Database, the leading open repository for fossil occurrence data, making it ideal for research, education, or enriching natural history content without building your own PBDB integration.

## Known failure modes

- Taxon name not found in PBDB — returns found: false with no classification data
- Misspelled or ambiguous taxon name yields no match
- Taxon name under 2 characters or over 100 characters rejected as invalid input
- PBDB upstream unavailable causes service error
- Informal common names (e.g. 'dinosaur') may not match a specific PBDB record

## How this service works

Fossil taxon lookup (Paleobiology Database) - classification, occurrences and geological age range

## Output

A JSON object with a boolean 'found' flag, the interpreted query name, PBDB identifier, taxonomic classification hierarchy, parent taxon, geological age range in millions of years, stratigraphic interval details, number of fossil occurrences, data source label, and any required attribution from the Paleobiology Database.

## 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": [
      "name"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "name": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "required fossil taxon name; 2-100 plain-text characters (query)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "json"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "found",
      "name",
      "classification",
      "age_million_years",
      "intervals",
      "source"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "name": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Name"
      },
      "found": {
       "type": "boolean",
       "description": "True when the lookup matched a record"
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "The query as the server interpreted it"
      },
      "parent": {
       "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
       ]
      },
      "source": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Data source the values come from"
      },
      "pbdb_id": {
       "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Pbdb id identifier"
      },
      "intervals": {
       "type": "object"
      },
      "rank_code": {
       "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Rank code"
      },
      "attribution": {
       "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Attribution required by the source"
      },
      "classification": {
       "type": "object",
       "description": "Classification assigned by the source"
      },
      "occurrence_count": {
       "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
       ],
       "description": "Number of occurrence"
      },
      "age_million_years": {
       "type": "object",
       "description": "Age million years"
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/saylor-innovations-fossil-taxon-lookup-ebcff72b/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)