[Taxacom] Nonsense in ZooKeys (photo based taxonomy again)

Sun Aug 27 23:58:51 CDT 2017

Please read the article (open access) before posting comments!!

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 28/8/17, igor pavlinov <ipvl2008 at mail.ru> wrote:

 Subject: Re[2]: [Taxacom] Nonsense in ZooKeys (photo based taxonomy again)
 To: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
 Cc: "penev at pensoft.net" <penev at pensoft.net>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>, "neale at bishopmuseum.org" <neale at bishopmuseum.org>, "Raymond Hoser - The Snakeman" <viper007 at live.com.au>
 Received: Monday, 28 August, 2017, 4:38 PM

 It seems to me that the
 authors took nom. nudum for nom. dubium.

 OK, thet were not experts in the ICZN
 particular statements - but what about peer reviewers? Does
 SooKey practicize such reviewing?

 I'm sorry I didn't read the paper in
 quesiton, so I am not sure which particular "typeless
 species" are/is meant. However, as far as  I know,
 absence of type fixation for species-group taxa is mandatory
 since 1999 according to Art. 16, so violation of this
 condition makes a new name unavailable.

 Igor
 - - -
 Igor
 Ya. Pavlinov, DrS
 Zoological Museum of
 Lomonosov Moscow State University
 ul.
 Bol'shaya Nikitskaya 6
 125009 Moscow 
 Russia
 http://zmmu.msu.ru/personal/pavlinov/pavlinov_eng1.htm

 	Понедельник, 28 августа 2017, 3:25 +03:00
 от Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>:

 		Here you
 go Ray: https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/10945/

 The public (of Russia) has paid to make this garbage open
 access! 'This work [garbage] was financially supported
 by the Russian Scientific Fund (project No. 14-50-00029,
 “Scientific bases of the national biobank, the depository
 of living systems”)'

 If only we could get public funding for our garbage, eh Ray!
 :)

 Stephen

 --------------------------------------------

 On Mon, 28/8/17, Raymond Hoser - The Snakeman <viper007 at live.com.au>
 wrote:

  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Nonsense in ZooKeys (photo based
 taxonomy again)

  To: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu"
 <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>,
 "neale at bishopmuseum.org"
 <neale at bishopmuseum.org>,
 "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>

  Cc: "penev at pensoft.net"
 <penev at pensoft.net>

  Received: Monday, 28 August, 2017, 11:45 AM

  Stephen (your comment below makes sense), but can you

  please provide a link to the paper so I can look at the

  rest.

  Thanks

  Raymond Hoser

  Snakebusters -

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  From: Taxacom

  <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 on behalf of

  Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>

  Sent: Monday, 28 August 2017 6:44 AM

  To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu;

  neale at bishopmuseum.org

  Cc: penev at pensoft.net

  Subject: [Taxacom] Nonsense in ZooKeys (photo based

  taxonomy again)

  An article was published a few

  days ago in ZooKeys, on the subject of photo based
 taxonomy.

  From the abstract:

  'If a taxonomist has omitted to compare the new
 typeless

  species with the known species externally similar to it,
 the

  latter cannot be diagnosed and its name in that case
 becomes

  nomen nudum.'

  Presumably they mean the FORMER cannot be diagnosed. By

  "typeless species", they just mean no
 preserved

  specimen as type. Anyway, it seems that they have made
 a

  rather creative interpretation of Article 13.1.1.

  13.1.1. be accompanied by a description or definition
 that

  states in words characters that are purported to

  differentiate the taxon

  The authors pontificate thusly (and erroneously): 

  'So, when describing a new typeless species a
 specialist

  should differentiate it from all the species described

  earlier. If the taxonomist in the differential
 diagnosis

  misses the comparison to a known species with which a

  typeless species is similar externally,

   the latter cannot be diagnosed on any account, and

  therefore its name falls under the definition of nomen

  nudum. Once again, we need to emphasize that nomen
 nudum

  here would be the result of nonprofessional actions of
 the

  taxonomist, who should have formally

   approached the task of comparison of typeless species
 to

  the closely related species described earlier'

  The authors have just ignored the term
 'purported'.

  Clearly it means 'purported by the authors of the
 new

  taxon', not 'purported by consensus of experts
 in

  the group'! Missing a character(s) which actually
 does

  differentiate a new taxon obviously does not invalidate

   the description (nomen nudum). At worst, it may lead to
 a

  nomen dubium. Clearly, there is no requirement in the
 Code

  to EXPLICITLY compare a purported new taxon with all
 known

  relatives! One simply has to specify characters which
 one

  thinks uniquely diagnoses

   the purported new taxon.

  If anyone can make much sense of the rest of the
 article,

  which reads like jibberish to me, then I'd be very

  interested to hear it!

  Let's stop filling the world scientific literature
 with

  nonsense, shall we?

  Stephen

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