---
layout: default
navsection: api
navmenu: API Methods
title: "specimens"
...
{% comment %}
Copyright (C) The Arvados Authors. All rights reserved.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-3.0
{% endcomment %}

API endpoint base: @https://{{ site.arvados_api_host }}/arvados/v1/specimens@

Object type: @j58dm@

Example UUID: @zzzzz-j58dm-0123456789abcde@

h2. Resource

A metadata record that may be used to represent a biological specimen.

Each Specimen has, in addition to the "Common resource fields":{{site.baseurl}}/api/resources.html:

table(table table-bordered table-condensed).
|_. Attribute|_. Type|_. Description|_. Example|
|material|string|||
|properties|hash|||

h2. Methods

See "Common resource methods":{{site.baseurl}}/api/methods.html for more information about @create@, @delete@, @get@, @list@, and @update@.

Required arguments are displayed in %{background:#ccffcc}green%.

h3. create

Create a new Specimen.

Arguments:

table(table table-bordered table-condensed).
|_. Argument |_. Type |_. Description |_. Location |_. Example |
|specimen|object||query||

h3. delete

Delete an existing Specimen.

Arguments:

table(table table-bordered table-condensed).
|_. Argument |_. Type |_. Description |_. Location |_. Example |
{background:#ccffcc}.|uuid|string|The UUID of the Specimen in question.|path||

h3. get

Gets a Specimen's metadata by UUID.

Arguments:

table(table table-bordered table-condensed).
|_. Argument |_. Type |_. Description |_. Location |_. Example |
{background:#ccffcc}.|uuid|string|The UUID of the Specimen in question.|path||

h3. list

List specimens.

See "common resource list method.":{{site.baseurl}}/api/methods.html#index

h3. update

Update attributes of an existing Specimen.

Arguments:

table(table table-bordered table-condensed).
|_. Argument |_. Type |_. Description |_. Location |_. Example |
{background:#ccffcc}.|uuid|string|The UUID of the Specimen in question.|path||
|specimen|object||query||