# Vertebrate Taxonomy Ontology (VTO)

> The Vertebrate Taxonomy Ontology includes both extinct and extant vertebrates, aiming to provide...

- Page: https://library.schematica.io/model/ba7db6beb9e547d8bf6a5b26372897e2
- Model type: Ontology
- License: CC BY 4.0
- Access type: Free
- Access method: Download
- Model size: Huge
- Formats: OWL
- Domains: Tech / IT
- Audiences: Researcher
- External link: https://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/VTO
- Contact: James Balhoff (balhoff@renci.org)
- Listed in library: 2025-06-12
- Last updated: 2025-09-10

## Description

## Ontology Info

| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Acronyme | VTO |
| Description | The Vertebrate Taxonomy Ontology includes both extinct and extant vertebrates, aiming to provide one comprehensive hierarchy. The hierarchy backbone for extant taxa is based on the NCBI taxonomy. Since the NCBI taxonomy only includes species associated with archived genetic data, to complement this, we also incorporate taxonomic information across the vertebrates from the Paleobiology Database (PaleoDB). The Teleost Taxonomy Ontology (TTO) and AmphibiaWeb (AWeb) are incorporated to provide a more authoritative hierarchy and a richer set of names for specific taxonomic groups. |
| Format | OWL |
| Categories | Taxonomic Classification |
| Groups | OBO Foundry |

## Metrics

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Classes | 107,254 |
| Individuals | 0 |
| Properties | 0 |
| Max Depth | 38 |
| Max Child Count | 451 |
| Average Child Count | 4 |
| Classes With One Child | 10,711 |
| Classes With More Than 25 Children | 661 |
| Classes With No Definition | 107,145 |

## Projects using VTO

- [Phenoscape](https://bioportal.bioontology.org/projects/Phenoscape)

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Source: https://library.schematica.io/model/ba7db6beb9e547d8bf6a5b26372897e2