[Taxacom] species loss: 20 years after Rio

[Neal Evenhuis]

Correction: "if there were enough taxonomists we would / could know all the species..."  should read  "if there were enough taxonomists paid to describe new species we would / could know all the species..."

There are plenty taxonomists out there. They just aren't paid to describe species anymore or otherwise have any incentive to describe new stuff. Most like to sort and "discover" new taxa but hate the "description" part. Just having a taxonomist around does not guarantee we will know anything more about his/her specialty group than we know now. Some need a push to get them going and publish so that "we", not "they", will know all the species.

@Jim-- I want your audio version of taxacom so I can listen too... :-)

-Neal

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Paul van Rijckevorsel [dipteryx at freeler.nl]
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 9:30 PM
To: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] species loss: 20 years after Rio

From: "Jim Croft" <jim.croft at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 8:54 AM

and not only that, listening to Taxacom, we still have absolutely no
idea what a species is... ;)

***
Sure, we do: a species is what a taxonomist says it is, and a
good species is what a consensus of taxonomists agrees it is.

As species are taxonomist-defined, the lack arguably is a
lack of taxonomists; if there were enough taxonomists we
would / could know all the species...

Paul



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