what's your opinion of using suffix like '_list' to differentiate it ?
ie:
GET /species
and
GET /species_list
?
ie:
GET /species
and
GET /species_list
?
Of all the rules, #1 one is by far the most arbitrary and least important. But it's also a thoroughly established convention. If you want to present "this is a normal, boring API with few surprises" to your clients, I wouldn't recommend odd collection suffixes.
But it's not going to fundamentally change the usability of your API, unlike many of the other rules.