[Taxacom] quality control of taxonomic work

[Damien HINSINGER]

I agree with your commentaries about bad and good taxonomists.
However, if you find a bigfoot looking like we can "imagine" it, it will appear clearly that is a new species. But, if you find a population of bigfoot (you're very lucky ;-) ), there will be likely somme differences among individuals, and the description will be not so clear as previously thought.... There is a lot of simple examples (most of mammals, birds,etc) where the species are morphologically weel-defined. But in others groups (worms, fishes, insects, etc), the delimitation of species could be not so easy.
In these cases, many individuals could be necessary to accurately assess the species diversity.
Not a simple question....
Damien



Le 7 mai 2012 ? 09:22, Cristian Ruiz Altaba a ?crit :

> I cannot understand why size matters so much.
>  
> If you were to get hold of a single Bigfoot, would you wait to have 30 specimens in order to perform an obvious T-test of height difference with Homo sapiens? Sometimes you really need statistics, often you don't. And even when you use sophisticated math, the number of specimens actually included in the analysis may be just a small sample of those examined.
>  
> I know beetle specialists who can tell a new species with an eyeblink, because they are comparing with millions of other specimens they have examined. And viceversa, I know malacologists who see new taxa without even having ever seen most of the closely related species --so I don't trust them.
>  
> So looking at number of specimens in the description is not reliable. Eventually, it is a bit more complex --taxonomists are human, bad taxonomists don't understand the basics of statistics, and good taxonomists have expertise.
>  
> Best,
>  
> Cristian
> 
> -----taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu escribi?: -----
> 
> Para: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
> De: Damien HINSINGER <hin175 at free.fr>
> Enviado por: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Fecha: 07/05/2012 09:01
> Asunto: Re: [Taxacom] quality control of taxonomic work
> 
> I think some taxonomic journal impose 30 individuals to publish measures with standard error, that is, in my humble opinion, a minimum requirement for asses the intra-specific diversity, even in a new species.
> However, there is many cases where we do not have enough specimens... the ideal world vs. the real world ;-)
> Damien
> 
> 
> Le 7 mai 2012 ? 08:53, Stephen Thorpe a ?crit :
> 
> > Many taxa are described on the basis of singletons ... sometimes it is clear, sometimes it isn't (i.e, sometimes the singleton itself isn't clearly a new taxon, but sometimes it seems to be, but additional material makes it less clear) ...
> > 
> > 
> > From: Donat Agosti <agosti at amnh.org>
> > To: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU 
> > Sent: Monday, 7 May 2012 6:26 PM
> > Subject: [Taxacom] quality control of taxonomic work
> > 
> > Is there a similar study that assess the taxononomic work we produce, such
> > as how many specimen where at the base for the description of taxa? 
> > 
> > http://tinyurl.com/c5fw7n8
> > 
> > How many specimen are usually used - are expected to be used for making a
> > sensible taxonomic decision?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Donat
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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