I know this is a bit out of context, as we want to speak more about the structure than the metadata itself, but I am writing my thoughts here about how to give animal description.

problems:

• information might be quite different depending on the species (for example age would be given in days for flies, in months for mice, larval stadium makes no sense for mammals but may be highly relevant for insects, ...)
• genetic description is a field in itself, for each species.
• sometimes some information is kept in the lab (see youtube video below)
• it might be interesting to get information about the animal and information about the experiment in 2 different files. (For example, the age problem would disappear, one just need "date of birth" and "date of experiment" and compute the age if necessary)

Source of information:

• https://arriveguidelines.org/arrive-guidelines/experimental-animals
• reagents.io
• https://github.com/HumanBrainProject/openMINDS/blob/master/v3.0/deprecated/core/subject.schema.json
• https://youtu.be/FKWznqP6rcE
• https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/b8755582/for-authors-elife-promotes-rigour-and-transparency-with-key-resources-tables