Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 13 No. 1: 20 December 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-12-20
DOI: 10.11646/bionomina.13.1.5
Page range: 65–68
Abstract views: 219
PDF downloaded: 172

“If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice”

Setor de Herpetologia, Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Laboratório de Répteis, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Setor de Herpetologia, Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Laboratório de Répteis, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Setor de Herpetologia, Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Taxonomy Nomenclature Systematics Zoological classification Stability

Abstract

Stability is an essential feature both to taxonomy and nomenclature. However, zoology is recently being flooded with countless proposals of taxonomic and/or nomenclatural changes, some of which may be considered premature when poorly supported or based upon overestimated hypotheses. We emphasize that the choice of not proposing nomenclatural and/or taxonomic changes might be as relevant as proposing new hypotheses and, therefore, must be carefully considered. Despite being apparently obvious and intuitive, this option seems to be only rarely cogitated.

References

  1. Alberts, B. (2013) Impact factor distortions. Science, 340 (6134): 787. <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1240319>.

    Anonymous [ICZN] (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth edition. London (International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature): i–xxix + 1–306.

    Anonymous [ICZN] (2008) Proposed amendment of articles 8, 9, 10, 21 and 78 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to expand and refine methods of publication. Bulletin of zoological Nomenclature, 65: 165–175.

    Anonymous [ICZN] (2012) Amendment of articles 8, 9, 10, 21 and 78 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to expand and refine methods of publication. Zootaxa, 3450: 1–7.

    Anonymous [ICZN] (2014) Zoological nomenclature and electronic publication—a reply to Dubois et al. (2013). Zootaxa, 3779: 3–5. <https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3779.1.2>.

    Burbrink, F., Crother, B. & Lawson, R. (2007) The destabilization of North American colubroid snake taxonomy. Herpetological Review, 38 (3): 273–278.

    Carvalho, M., Bockmann, F., Amorim, D., Brandão, C., Vivo, M., Figueiredo, J., Britski, H., de Pinna, M., Menezes, N., Marques, F., Papavero, N., Cancello, E., Crisci, J., McEachran, J., Schelly, R., Lundberg, J., Gill, A., Britz, R., Wheeler, Q., Stiassny, M., Parenti, L., Page, L., Wheeler, W., Faivovich, J., Vari, R., Grande, L., Humphries, C., DeSalle, R., Ebach, M. & Nelson, G. (2007) Taxonomic impediment or impediment to taxonomy? A commentary on systematics and the cybertaxonomic-automation paradigm. Evolutionary Biology, 34 (3): 140–143. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-007-9011-6>.

    Carvalho, M., Ebach, M., Williams, D., Nihei, S., Rodrigues, M., Grant, T., Silveira, L., Zaher, H., Gill, A., Schelly, R., Sparks, J., Bockmann, F., Séret, B., Ho, H., Grande, L., Rieppel, O., Dubois, A., Ohler, A., Faivovich, J., Assis, L., Wheeler, Q., Goldstein, P., Almeida, E., Valdecasas, A. & Nelson, G. (2013) Does counting species count as taxonomy? On misrepresenting systematics, yet again. Cladistics, 30: 1–8.

    Costello, M., May, R. & Stork, N. (2013) Can we name earth’s species before they go extinct? Science, 339 (6118): 413–416. <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1230318>.

    Dubois, A. (2008) Phylogenetic hypotheses, taxa and nomina in zoology. Zootaxa, 1950: 51–86.

    Dubois, A., Crochet, P., Dickinson, E., Nemésio, A., Aescht, E., Bauer, A., Blagoderov, V., Bour, R., Carvalho, M., Desutter-Grandcolas, L., Frétey, T., Jäger, P., Koyamba, V., Lavilla, E., Löbl, I., Louchart, A., Malécot, V., Schatz, H. & Ohler, A. (2013) Nomenclatural and taxonomic problems related to the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts in zoology, with brief comments on optical discs and on the situation in botany. Zootaxa, 3735: 1–94. <https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3735.1.1>.

    Ebach, M., Valdecasas, A. & Wheeler, Q. (2011) Impediments to taxonomy and users of taxonomy: accessibility and impact evaluation. Cladistics, 27: 550–557. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2011.00348.x>.

    Godfray, H. (2007) Linnaeus in the information age. Nature, 446 (7133): 259–260. <https://doi.org/10.1038/446259a>.

    Härlin, M. (1998) Taxonomic names and phylogenetic trees. Zoologica scripta, 27 (4): 381–390. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1463-6409.1998.tb00469.x>.

    Hebert, P., Cywinska A., Ball, S. & deWaard, J. (2003) Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proceedings of the royal Society of London, (B), 270: 313–321. <https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2002.2218>.

    Hedges, S. (2013) Revision shock in taxonomy. Zootaxa, 3681: 297–298. <https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3681.3.11>.

    Kaiser, H., Crother, B., Kelly, C., Luiselli, L., O’Shea, M., Ota, H., Passos, P., Schleip, W. & Wüster, W. (2013) Best practices: in the 21st century, taxonomic decisions in herpetology are acceptable only when supported by a body of evidence and published via peer-review. Herpetological Review, 44 (1): 8–23.

    Mill, J. (1882) A system of logic, ratiocinative and inductive, being a connected view of the principles of evidence and the methods of scientific investigation. Eight edition. New York (Harper & Brothers): 1–1156.

    Minelli, A. (2017) Grey nomenclature needs rules. Ecologica montenegrina, 7: 654–666.

    Oliver, P. & Lee, M. (2010) The botanical and zoological codes impede biodiversity research by discouraging publication of unnamed new species. Taxon, 59 (4): 1201–1205.

    Pyle, R. & Michel, E. (2008) Zoobank: developing a nomenclatural tool for unifying 250 years of biological information. Zootaxa, 1950: 39–50.

    Valdecasas, A. (2011) An index to evaluate the quality of taxonomic publications. Zootaxa, 2925: 57–62.

    Vences, M., Guayasamin, J., Miralles, A. & De La Riva, I. (2013) To name or not to name: criteria to promote economy of change in Linnaean classification schemes. Zootaxa, 3636: 201–244. <https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3636.2.1>.

    Wheeler, Q., Raven, P. & Wilson, E. (2004) Taxonomy: impediment or expedient? Science, 303 (5656): 285. <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.303.5656.285>.

    Wilson, E. (1985) The biological diversity crisis. BioScience, 35 (11): 700–706. <https://doi.org/10.2307/1310051>.

    Zhang, Z. (2006) The making of a mega-journal in taxonomy. Zootaxa, 1385: 67–68.

    Zhang, Z. (2011) Describing unexplored biodiversity: Zootaxa in international year of biodiversity. Zootaxa, 2768: 1–4.