Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye

Mon Dec 8 13:28:34 CST 2025

Hey Tony -- I'm not sure how the archiving algorithms for Internet Archive work, but if the chances of it crawling the full site to capture all the archives is somehow increased by a sudden burst on on-list activity (populating the most recent archive links and thereby representing it as a highly active list), then I would like to offer some assistance by posing the following question to all Taxacomers:

Do you think that "species" are objectively discernable units in nature, and our job as Taxonomists is to *discover* them?

Or, do you think that "species" are human constructs that facilitate communication by imposing some degree of order on an otherwise (more or less) continuously chaotic array of biodiversity, and our job as Taxonomists is to *define* them?

Please explain your evidence reasoning for whichever answer you provide.

Now *THAT* ought to spice up the traffic on this list a bit.  What do you say... one last "hurrah" for a spirited discussion on this list before it meets its end?

Aloha,
Rich

P.S. Bonus question:  If a "species" is a hypothesis, then is it a hypothesis within the field of biology, or sociology?  In either case, how would you test and/or falsify the hypothesis of a species?

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 Tony Rees via
> Taxacom
> Sent: Monday, December 8, 2025 9:11 AM
> To: Taxacom (taxacom at lists.ku.edu) <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
> Subject: Re: Taxacom: TAXACOM -- the long goodbye
> 
> Sad news of course, but thanks for all the fish! (to quote from a well known
> novel...) Now we will have to find another place to ask curly questions and
> expect a wide and informed readership. But huge thanks for the instigators and
> sustainers all along the way.
> 
> I also presume that content will remain accessible via the internet archive. I just
> checked for https://lists.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom/ via the wayback machine
> and it said that page had not been archived before (which is weird) so I have put
> in a request for it to be added, now actioned, see
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20251208190649%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Flists.ku.edu%2Fpipermail%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C065f32f9d1554bb4c4d908de368ffe26%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008190286728234%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Y0p8JHQsBjGnMmy4l%2BJXLPpAIhJ9fVsFGfoETiyoEQQ%3D&reserved=0
> taxacom/
> 
> If there is a little more traffic before the list actually closes, they may or should
> update that record as well, with one or more new capture dates, for so long as it
> remains online of course... otherwise this snapshot should certainly persist.
> 
> Regards to all - Tony
> Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.me%2FTonyRees&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C065f32f9d1554bb4c4d908de368ffe26%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008190286739432%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bc%2BYD1VhyxmycCQ5MXQ8hzJpmli0BdENpO2FIb3M4Dk%3D&reserved=0
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irmng.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C065f32f9d1554bb4c4d908de368ffe26%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C639008190286746998%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=idrf7XbISr7%2Btn9MmB1lz1KCTXtuNVNjDzyVWBNUAcg%3D&reserved=0
> 
> 
> On Tue, 9 Dec 2025 at 06:02, Beach, James H. via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> 
> > Dear Taxacomers --
> >
> > When Drs. Richard Zander and Patricia Eckel started the online service
> > "Taxacom" in 1987 at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New
> > York, access to the online resource was through dial-up modems. It was
> > years before global internet mail or the World Wide Web.  They
> > graciously allowed me to assist in sustaining Taxacom as we evolved it
> > from the original bulletin board to Bitnet Listserv software, and
> > later Mailman software, at universities in Michigan, Massachusetts, California,
> and finally Kansas.
> > Dr. Peter Rauch co-managed Taxacom with me for all of that time.
> >
> > During the 38 years, we have had innumerable rigorous, nuanced,
> > interesting and fun scholarly dialogues.  We focused on important and
> > complex topics in systematics, biogeography, taxonomy and
> > nomenclature, among other areas.
> >
> > After consulting with the Richard and Patricia (now at the Missouri
> > Botanical Garden) and with Peter, we agreed that this would be a good
> > time to retire Taxacom and ride off into the sunset.  We plan to close
> > the Taxacom email list later this month (December 2025). This could be
> > a bit of a shock or perhaps a bit of relief for some.  Feel encouraged
> > to send any thoughts you may have to the list (soon) or to me.
> >
> > We would like to recognize the many intellectual contributions
> > hundreds of scientists have made to the Taxacom collective
> > consciousness on research issues.  But it seems hardly possible to
> > adequately acknowledge all of the cognitive and keystroking effort you
> > put in over 38 years that made Taxacom worth receiving and reading.  I
> > hope you feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment for keeping
> > Taxacom subscribers enlightened, and sometimes even entertained, with your
> wisdom and wit.
> >
> > I will archive the e-mail contents of the Taxacom mailing list archive
> > in standard ".mbox' format files, so should there be a scholar or
> > initiative in the future interested in what you all did here the archived mail will
> be
> > preserved and easily read.   I will make those files available upon request
> > to anyone early in 2026.
> >
> > Thank you again for subscribing, contributing, or for just hanging out
> > with Taxacom.  It has been fun, and it has been a good run.
> >
> >
> > With best wishes,
> >
> > Jim Beach
> >
> >
> > James H. Beach
> > Biodiversity Institute
> > University of Kansas
> > 1345  Jayhawk  Blvd
> > Lawrence, KS 66045
> > Cell:   785.331.8508
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
> >
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
> 
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu For list
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> 