[Taxacom] Integrative taxonomy

[Ali]

Hi All
 
I think the idea of Bob-email bellow this email- is very useful.
A single Taxonomy Journal is really interesting.
At least we can have a single journal in every main field, like one in 
Parasitology, one in Microbiology and so on.
But these days for instance in my field, we can see every day one journal comes 
up, one new species is described in a new veterinary journal with no drawings, 
one is published in another new  online zoology journal with afew drawings, but 
its the best to harmonize this , at least in main fields of research.
I gues its really possible, however needs an organization to manage it, 
otherwise every institute, every university likes to publish a journal and soon 
we can have journals equal to the number of world institutes!
 
We have lots of descriptions and re-descriptions in different journals all over 
the world and in different languages and styles- But Interestingly all 
Parasitology articles-that sometimes for a review or a new articles we cant find 
all of them for comparison.
 
Best



 
Yours sincerely
Dr. Ali Halajian
DVM.Parasitology PhD Student
WAAVP Member
www.parasites-world.com 
 
               Dip. Ecologia e Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile (D.E.C.O.S.)
                    Università degli Studi della Tuscia
                    largo dell'Università, snc
                    01100, Viterbo, Italy
                    Tel. +39 0761357753
                    Phone:  0039 3272354500(mobile)
                      




________________________________
From: Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Sun, August 1, 2010 4:04:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Integrative taxonomy

Stephen, I don't think you're seeing this issue as broadly as do the authors of 
the article. There is an enormous amount of character evidence for lineage 
separation coming out of molecular studies. It's coming out far faster than the 
shrinking taxonomic workforce can deal with it, i.e. can look more closely at 
all the lineage distinctions (molecular and other) and make a solid taxonomic 
case for naming these entities.

What currently happens is that molecular, non-taxonomic papers appear in which 
the authors mutter ominously about 'cryptic species' and leave it at that. The 
authors of the Frontiers in Zoology paper are thinking about ways to integrate 
this information into a broader taxonomic picture. I am absolutely rock-solid 
against describing new species on DNA evidence alone, but I am perfectly happy 
with candidate-species tags for entities with congruent coalescents in a variety 
of genes. These are place-holders pointing to the need for further work.

Keeping track of such things is a trivial bookkeeping exercise. Maybe what's 
needed is a single journal, a la the single journal in which prokaryote taxonomy 
gets published, in which candidate species get published: The Journal of 
Molecular and Possible Taxonomy. After follow-up work by knowledgeable 
taxonomists (see the Ebach and Carvalho article Taxacomers were pointed to), 
candidates could graduate to full species in a mainstream journal.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
03 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570

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