[Taxacom] Metadata for names of living things: 'species' microformat

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Andy, 
????????Addressing your second question first, I see no
good reason to switch from English (Kingdom etc.) to Latin (Regnum
etc.). This would probably only confuse people unfamiliar with Latin
terms for such ranks, with no major advantage in making such a change.
? ? ? 

???????And instead of just one top-level "biota", a more
useful division would be Ernst Mayr's division into Empire Prokaryota
and Empire Eukaryota. As he eloquently argues, it is the most
fundamental division of living organisms. ? ? ? 
???????As for the Kingdoms (plant, animal, fungus,
bacterium, virus) and don't forget protist, a 5 or 6 Kingdom system is
probably the most common and useful system. Viruses and bacteria are
clearly prokaryotes, while protists, plants, animals, and fungi are
clearly eukaryotes. The only controversial aspect of such a system is
that Protista is paraphyletic (which is fine with me and many others).     

         Splitting off another Kingdom Chromista (as Cavalier-Smith
favors) still leaves a paraphyletic Protozoa, so splitting Protista into

two Kingdoms does nothing to solve the paraphyly "problem" (a problem
according to strict cladists) and what to include in a Kingdom Chromista

has done nothing but generate unnecessary controversy and instability.
Therefore, I have always argued against recognizing a separate Kingdom
Chromista.     

??????So I see no problem with Empire Prokaryota (divided
into Kingdoms "Virus" and Bacteria), although some might favor splitting

off the so-called "Archaea" as a separate Kingdom. And I see no problem
with Empire Eukaryota being divided into Kingdoms Protista, Fungi,
Animalia, and Plantae (except what constitutes Plantae is controversial,

as some workers prefer to place some algae in Protista instead of
Plantae---such as rhodophytes, glaucophytes, and better yet, even
chlorophytes). Keeping such algae in Protista results in a more
traditional Plantae (equivalent to Metaphyta and Embryophyta). ?  ? 
?????????????????-------Ken Kinman ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  
----------------------------------------------              
Andy Mabbett wrote: 
??????????There are two issues about which I'm
currently undecided: 
* Should there continue to be one top-level property, currently "biota",

or one for each kingdom ("plant", "animal", "fungus" "bacterium",
"virus" - note that these are not always clear-cut distinctions:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incertae_sedis>;
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)>) 
* Should the properties continue to use English names such as "kingdom",

"order", "family" etc, or latin "regnum", "ordo", "familia"? Though I do

tend strongly towards not changing things for the sake of it, I'm open
to cogent arguments for doing so.