Taxacom: published names without description

Tue Dec 10 12:00:43 CST 2024

I'll echo the sentiments of both Thomas Pape and David Ride and suggest that our long tradition of standardized (codified) scientific nomenclature -- one of the longest-standing and most universally adopted standards in ALL OF SCIENCE -- may not survive much longer if it cannot accommodate modern mechanisms of information exchange more elegantly.

This sentiment is NOT limited to Zoological nomenclature (ahem), but applies generally to all scientific nomenclature for all domains of life.  Botanists, Mycologists and Phycologists have an opportunity to amend their rules every 6 years.  The interval in zoology is much longer, but as luck would have it, the next (fifth) Edition of the ICZN Code is being drafted right now.  Sometime in the next few years, we'll have a once-in-a-quarter-century opportunity to simultaneously modernize the way scientific names of organisms are established (and maintained), and harmonize the rules across the different domains/codes.  If the critter/weed/shroom/limu gang can follow the lead of the prokaryotic folks in embracing a system of registration, and if all of them (prokaryote folk included) can anchor that registration system within a common (or, at least, very similar) electronic, online, and public-domain data resource, the likelihood that standardized scientific nomenclature (and, by extension, the field of biological taxonomy as we know it) will persist for decades (or centuries) to come, will increase dramatically.

I've held out hope for this across several decades, and have crusaded for it during my 18-year tenure on the ICZN Commission (as well as a decade or so prior to that), but sadly it still feels (just barely) out of reach.

The opportunity to move in this direction is right in front of us, and we still have a couple of years to make it happen.  Are we (taxonomists) up to the challenge?

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Director of EXCORE | Senior Curator of Ichthyology | Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817-2704
Office: (808) 848-4115;  Fax: (808) 847-8252
eMail: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
BishopMuseum.org
Our Mission: Bishop Museum inspires our community and visitors through the exploration and celebration of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawai?i and the Pacific.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Thomas Pape
> via Taxacom
> Sent: Monday, December 9, 2024 1:58 PM
> To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: Taxacom: published names without description
> 
> >>> remarkable how often authors trying to publish new taxa fail to
> >>> comply with all the requirements
> 
> I share this impression, and although I cannot back this up with real numbers
> it is easy to point to recent examples:
> 
> The giant hummingbird Patagona chaski Williamson et al., 2024: name failed
> to comply when originally published in PNAS.
> The viper Ovophis malhotrae Zeng et al., 2023: name failed to comply when
> originally published in Zoologica Scripta.
> The conger eel Smithconger Carnevale et al., 2022: name failed to comply
> when originally published in Bull. Geol. Soc. Denmark.
> 
> This happens more than ten years after an amendment to the zoological
> Code was published to allow new names and nomenclatural acts to be
> available from PDF-based scientific works. Maybe the requirements were too
> strict; or maybe the ICZN didn't disseminate the requirements well enough?
> --- or maybe it is time to consider how to deliver nomenclatural data (and
> establish formal availability) in a digital world with constantly changing
> information systems?
> 
> David Ride, a former ICZN President, suggested in the Introduction to the
> current edition of the zoological Code, that perhaps ?the solution will not lie
> in patching up a definition of publication but, rather, in scrapping it and
> finding a means of replacing ?publication? as a primary determinant of
> availability? (Ride 1999). This certainly was a bold suggestion, but I am
> convinced that a requirement of mandatory registration of new names will
> have more (many more) advantages than drawbacks. With more of the Code
> compliance moved to an online Registry, we can more efficiently ensure that
> all relevant details are provided and made public.
> 
> /Thomas
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Luis Ruedas
> via Taxacom
> Sent: 9. december 2024 20:44
> To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: Taxacom: published names without description
> 
> There *is* a handy how to guide...
> 
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2024 at 11:34?AM Douglas Yanega via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> 
> > As of the 2000 Edition of the Code (Code 4) there are more criteria
> > that need to be met for a new name to be available than was true in
> > earlier Code versions.
> >
> > (1) It must be *published* in the sense of the Code. With print pubs
> > this is generally easily met, for e-only publications the requirements
> > are very stringent and complicated.
> >
> > (2) Names for new families *must* designate a type genus, new genera
> > must designate a type species, new species must designate a type
> specimen.
> >
> > (3) There must be an *explicit statement* that the names are new, and
> > they must be proposed as available names of subspecies or higher rank,
> > not synonyms, morphs, or varieties, or as "conditional" names.
> >
> > (4) proposals of new taxa must include a *verbal description* of their
> > diagnostic feature(s).
> >
> > (5) for new species, the *name and location* of the depository of the
> > type specimen must be given.
> >
> > While these provisions are excellent at preventing "accidental"
> > introduction of new names (such as in a meeting abstract) it's pretty
> > remarkable how often authors trying to publish new taxa fail to comply
> > with all the requirements. In just the past year, I've seen examples
> > of works failing each one of the criteria above, sometimes more than one.
> >
> > Peace,
> >
> > --
> > Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> > Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314  voicemail:951-827-8704
> > FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
> >               https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffaculty.ucr.edu%2F~heraty%2Fyanega.html&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb9df80d761ab436bff7908dd194493e6%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638694505589115080%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Myp1tcl1z2jz9je6TSNbsNbab1XjrYCYFNxpJNj26k8%3D&reserved=0
> >    "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
> >          is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
> >
> > Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu For
> > list information; to subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
> > https://list/
> >
> s.ku.edu%2Flistinfo%2Ftaxacom&data=05%7C02%7Ctpape%40snm.ku.dk%7C
> 711ec
> >
> cffca1a432f4d6d08dd1889f8e6%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0
> %7C0
> >
> %7C638693703065855258%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hc
> GkiOnRydWUs
> >
> IlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3
> D%7
> >
> C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0DuC1Zns0TCK0wrVnMv5BgEDjMWUXYcAtljzUh77XL
> E%3D&reser
> > ved=0 You can reach the person managing the list at:
> > taxacom-owner at lists.ku.edu
> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 37 years, 1987-2024.
> >
> >
> 
> --
> 
> Luis A. Ruedas, Ph.D.
> Professor and Chair of Biology
> Portland State University
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fluisruedas1.github.io%2FLuis_Ruedas%2Findex.html&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb9df80d761ab436bff7908dd194493e6%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638694505589134433%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MEFzDJhPOrtXbB%2B0qOYL%2FJx1VEryNjXWd6pdXJrSwJA%3D&reserved=0
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> 
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu For list
> information; to subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
> https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/taxacom
> You can reach the person managing the list at: taxacom-owner at lists.ku.edu
> 
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 37 years, 1987-2024.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> 
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu For list
> information; to subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
> https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/taxacom
> You can reach the person managing the list at: taxacom-owner at lists.ku.edu
> 
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 37 years, 1987-2024.