[Taxacom] Chameleons, GBIF, and the Red List

[Richard Pyle]

> Nor can one reasonably complain because dead taxonomists (or even
> taxonomists that have moved on to other activities) failed to provide the
> level of documentation required to reliably identify specimens according to a
> taxonomic treatment not available when they collected/annotated
> specimens and/or failed to provide the geographic detail that is now feasible.

EXACTLY!!  We're not arguing about databases here -- we're arguing about the realities of information, or lack thereof.  You can't blame a a database for not including information that doesn't exist, and you can't blame a taxonomist for not documenting something that he/her doesn't know, or could not possibly have known.

> So folks, the glass is filling up - at least for the kinds of
> organisms deposited in herbaria.

Ditto!

Aloha,
Rich