Taxacom: Species described based on a single collection

[Peter Uetz]

The Reptile Database has about 100 species annotated as being described from the type only (out of ~12,000 species)
But that?s certainly an underestimate.
Shai Meiri and collaborators (2017) compiled a list of 927 of then 6,568 recognized lizard species known only from the type locality, which is probably a good approximation:

Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zolt?n T. Nagy, Cristiano de C. Nogueira, Paul Oliver, Olivier S. G. Pauwels, Daniel Pincheira-Donoso, Glenn Shea, Roberto Sindaco, Oliver J. S. Tallowin, Omar Torres-Carvajal, Jean-Francois Trape, Peter Uetz, Philipp Wagner, Yuezhao Wang, Thomas Ziegler, and Uri Roll (2017)
Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges.
Diversity and Distributions, //dx.doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12678 (add http: in front)

Peter



> On Feb 19, 2023, at 3:53 PM, Laurent Gautier via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> We often hear or read: "A huge amount of Amazon plant species are known 
> only from the type" or "Most XIXth century species descriptions are based 
> on a single specimen". But has anybody gone any further in metrics?
> 
> I am looking for statistics (published or not) on the percentage of 
> species descriptions based on a single specimen (or collection), and 
> possibly its variation across time or geographical area considered.
> 
> Does that ring a bell to anybody? My main focus is on flowering plants, 
> but all living organisms welcome!
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Laurent Gautier
> Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques, Geneva, Switzerland
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