Abstract
Public databases are a promising tool for collaborative taxonomy. A collaborative revision requires a number of decisions, which – unlike in individual work – need to be clarified in advance. The success of such initiatives depends on acceptable guidelines for possible-yet-unknown participants. The nature of morphological variation constrains the scope of this kind of taxonomy to a level of single genera or families. The database should contain information also on sub and infra-subspecific taxa in order to preserve their identity and retain full knowledge of morphological diversity. All information on morphological variation to be included in the open-access database needs to be subject to peer-review, e.g. in the form of species descriptions. We expect the Web-accessed morphological databases to centralize and unify scattered taxonomical efforts, to foster taxonomy of difficult taxa, to provide free identification aids, and to condense the publication-citation cycle in the notoriously undercited field of alpha taxonomy. Specific issues are illustrated by the case of the amphipod family Niphargidae (http://niphargus.info/).References
Agnarsson, I. & Kuntner, M. (2007) Taxonomy in a changing world: seeking solutions for a science in crisis. Systematic Biology, 56, 531–539.
Agosti, D. & Johnson, N.F. (2002) Taxonomists need better access to published data. Nature, 417, 222.
Berendsohn, W.G. & Geoffroy, M. (in press) Networking taxonomic concepts – uniting without “unitary-ism”. In: Curry, G. & Humphries, C. (Eds) Biodiversity Databases.
Bisby, F.A., Shimura, J., Ruggiero, M., Edwards, J. & Haeuser, Ch. (2002) Taxonomy, at the click of a mouse. Nature, 418, 367.
Coleman, C.O. & Myers, A. (2000) New Amphipoda from Baltic amber. Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii, 47, 457–464.
Coleman, C.O. & Ruffo, S. (2002) Another discovery of a niphargid amphipod (Crustacea) in Baltic amber. Mitteilungen aus dem Geologisch-Paläontologischen Institut der Universität Hamburg, 86, 239–244.
Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A. & Zurcher E.J. (2007). DELTA - DEscription Language for Taxonomy [Computer software and manuals], CSIRO. Available from http://delta-intkey.com/ (accessed 16th July, 2007).
Davis, J.I. & Nixon, K.C. (1992) Populations, genetic variation, and the delimitation of phylogenetic species. Systematic Biology, 42(4), 421–445.
Dayrat, B. (2005) Towards integrative biology. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 85, 407–415.
DeSalle, R., Egan, M.A. & Siddall, M. (2005) The unholly trinity: taxonomy, species delimitation and DNA barcoding. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), 360, 1905–1916.
Esselstyn, J.A. (2007) Should universal guidelines be applied to taxonomic research? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 90, 761–764.
Fišer, C., Bininda-Emonds, O.P.R., Blejec, A. & Sket, B. (2008a) Can heterochrony help explain the high morphological diversity within the genus Niphargus (Crustacea: Amphipoda)? Organisms, Diversity and Evolution, 8, 146–162.
Fišer, C., Çamour-Elipek, B. & Özbek M. (in press) The subterranean genus Niphargus in the Middle East: a faunistic overview with description of two new species. Zoologischer Anzeiger.
Fišer, C., Keber, R., Kereži, V., Moškrič, A., Palandačić, A., Potočnik, H. & Sket, B. (2007a) Coexistence of two species of two amphipod genera: Niphargus timavi (Niphargidae) and Gammarus fossarum (Gammaridae). Journal of Natural History, 41, 2641–2651.
Fišer, C., Sket, B. & Stoch, F. (2006) Distribution of four narrowly endemic Niphargus species (Crustacea: Amphipoda) in the western Dinaric region with description of a new species. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 245, 77–94.
Fišer, C., Trontelj, P., Luštrik, R. & Sket, B. (2009) Toward a unified taxonomy of Niphargus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): a review of morphological variability. Zootaxa, 2061: 1–22.
Fišer, C., Trontelj, P. & Sket, B. (2008b) A phylogenetic perspective on 160 years of troubled taxonomy of Niphargus (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Zoologica Scripta, 37, 665–680.
Fišer, C., Zakšek, V., Zagmajster, M. & Sket, B. (2007b) Taxonomy and biogeography of Niphargus steueri (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Limnology, 8, 297–309.
Fišer, C. & Zagmajster, M. (2009) Cryptic species from cryptic space: the case of Niphargus fongi sp. n. (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Niphargidae). Crustaceana, 82, 593–614.
Godfray, H.Ch.J. (2002) Challenges for taxonomy. Nature, 417, 17–19.
Godfray, H.Ch.J., Clark, B.R., Kitching, I.J., Mayo, S.J. & Scoble, M.J. (2007) The Web and the structure of taxonomy. Systematic Biology, 56, 943–955.
Goloboff, P.A., Mattoni, C.I. & Quinteros, A.S. 2006. Continuous characters analyzed as such. Cladistics, 22, 589–601
Guralnick, R.P., Hill, A.W. & Lane, M. (2007) Towards a collaborative, global infrastructure for biodiversity assessment. Ecology Letters, 10, 663–672.
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) (2008) Proposed amendment of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to expand and refine methods of publication. Zootaxa, 1908, 57–67.
Karaman, G.S. & Ruffo, S. (1986) Amphipoda: Niphargus – group (Niphargidae sensu Bousfield, 1982). In: Botosaneau, L. (Ed), Stygofauna Mundi. E.J. Brill/Dr.Backhuys, Leiden, pp. 514–534.
Knapp, S., Bateman, R.M., Chalmers, N.R., Humphries, C.J., Rainbow, P.S., Smith, A. B., Taylor, P.D., Vane-Wright, R.I. & Wilkinson, M. (2002) Taxonomy needs evolution, not revolution. Nature, 419, 559–560.
Knapp, S., Lamas, G., Lughadha, N.E. & Novarino, G. (2004) Stability or stasis in the names of organisms: the evolving codes of nomenclature. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), 359, 611–622.
Knapp, S., Polaszek, A. & Watson, M. (2007) Spreading the world. Nature, 446, 261–262.
Kuntner, M. & Agnarsson, I. (2006) Are the Linnean and phylogenetic nomenclatural systems combinable? Recommendations for biological nomenclature. Systematic Biology, 55, 774–784.
Laurin, M. & Cantino, P.D. (2007) Second Meeting of the International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature: a report. Zoologica Scripta, 36, 109–117.
Lefébure, T., Douady, C.J., Gouy, M., Trontelj, P., Briolay, J. &Gibert, J. (2006) Molecular phylogeography of Niphargus virei. Molecular Ecology, 15, 1797–1806.
Lefébure, T., Douady, C.J., Malard, F.& Gibert, J. (2007) Testing dispersal and cryptic diversity in a widely distributed groundwater amphipod (Niphargus rhenorhodanensis). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 42, 676–686.
Liljeblad, J., Ronquist, F., Nieves-Aldrey, J.-L-, Fontal-Cazalla, F., Ros-Farre, P., Gaitros, D. & Pujade-Villar, J. (2008) A fully web-illustrated morphological phylogenetic study of relationships among oak gall wasps and their closest relatives (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). Zootaxa, 1796, 1–73.
Mathieu, J., Jeannerod, F., Hervant, F. & Kane, T.C. (1997) Genetic differentiation of Niphargus rhenorhodanensis (Amphipoda) from interstitial and karst environments. Aquatic Sciences, 59, 39–47.
Mayden, R.L. (1997) A hierarchy of species concepts: the denouncement in the saga of the species problem. In: Claridge, M. F., Dawah, H. A. & Wilson, M. R. (Eds) Species: the units of biodiversity. Chapman & Hall, London, pp. 381–424.
Mayo, S.J.,. Allkin, R., Baker, W., Blagoderov, V., Brake, I., Clark, B., Govaerts, R., Godfray, C., Haigh, A., Hand, R., Harman, K., Jackson, M., Kilian, N., Kirkup, D.W., Kitching, I., Knapp, S., Lewis, G.P., Malcolm, P., von Raab-Straube, E., Roberts, D.M., Scoble, M., Simpson, D.A., Smith, C., Smith, V., Villalba, S., Walley, L. & Wilkin, P. (2008) Alpha e-taxonomy: responses from the systematics community to the biodiversity crisis. Kew Bulletin, 63, 1–16.
Mayr, E. & Aschlock, P.D. (1991) Principles of Systematic Zoology. McGraw-Hill Inc, Singapore.
Padial, J.M. & De la Riva, I. (2007) Taxonomy, the Cinderella of science, hidden by its evolutionary stepsister. Zootaxa, 1577, 1–2.
Polaszek, A., Agosti, D., Alonso-Zarazaga, M., Beccaloni, G., de Place, B.P., Bouchet, P., Brothers, D.J., the Earl of Cranbrook, Evenhuis, N., Godfray, H.Ch.J., Johnson, N.F., Krell, F.-T., Lipscomb, D., Lyal, C.H.C., Mace, G.M., Mawatari, S., Miller, S.E., Minelli, A., Morris, S., Ng, P.K.L., Patterson, D.J., Hole, W., Pyle, R.L., Robinson, N., Rogo, L., Taverne, J., Thompson, F.C., van Tol, J., Wheeler, Q.D. & Wilson, E.O. (2005) A universal register for animal names. Nature, 437, 477.
Pyle, R.L., Earle, J.L. & Brian, G.D. (2008) Five new species of the damselfish genus Chromis (Perciformes: Labroidei: Pomacentridae) from deep coral reefs in the tropical western Pacific. Zootaxa, 1673, 3–31.
de Queiroz, K. (2007) Species concepts and species delimitation. Systematic Biology, 56, 879–886.
Ruffo, S. (Editor) (1972) Actes du Ier Colloque Internationale sur le genre Niphargus Verona 15-16 aprile 1969. Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, Verona.
Scoble, M.J. (2004) Unitary or unified taxonomy? Transactions of Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), 359, 699–710.
Sites, J.W. & Marshall, J.C. (2003) Delimiting species: a Renaissance issue in systematic biology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 462–470.
Sites, J.W. & Marshall, J.C. (2004) Operational criteria for delimiting species. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 35, 199–227.
Sket, B. (1971) Vier neue Aberrante Niphargus – Arten (Amphipoda, Gammaridae) und einige Bemerkungen zur Taxonomie der Niphargus – ähnlichen Gruppen. Dissertationes Academia Scientiarum et Artium Slovenica - Classis IV: Historia Naturalis et Medicina, 14, 1–25.
Sket, B. (1972) Die Niphargus jovanovici - Gruppe (Amphipoda, Gammaridae) in Jugoslawien und NO- Italien, taxonomisch, zoogeographisch und phylogenetisch betrachtet. Dissertationes Academia Scientiarum et Artium Slovenica - Classis IV: Historia Naturalis et Medicina, 15, 99–140.
Sket, B. (2003) Životinjski svijet Vjetrenice (Cave fauna: the particular case of Vjetrenica). In: Lučić, I. (Ed) Vjetrenica: pogled u dušu Zemlje (Vjetrenica: a glimpse into the soul of the Earth). ArTresor, Zagreb, pp. 147–248.
Thiele, K. & Yeates, D. (2002) Tension arises from duality at the heart of taxonomy. Nature, 419, 337.
Trontelj, P., Douady, C., Fišer, C., Gibert, J., Gorički, Š., Lefébure, T., Sket, B. & Zakšek, V. (2009) A molecular test for hidden biodiversity in groundwater: how large are the ranges of macro-stygobionts? Freshwater Biology, 54, 727–744. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.2007.01877.x
Väinölä, R., Witt, J.D.S., Grabowski, M., Bradbury, J.H., Jazdzewski, K. & Sket, B. (2008) Global diversity of amphipods (Amphipoda; Crustacea) in freshwater Hydrobiologia, 595, 241–255.
Valdecasas, A.G., Williams, D., Wheeler, Q.D. (2008) ‘Integrative taxonomy’ then and now: a response to Dayrat (2005). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 93: 211–216.
Wägele, J.W. (1995) On the information content of characters in molecular systematics and comparative morphology. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evololutionary Research, 33, 42–47.
Werner, Y.L. (2006) The case of impact factor versus taxonomy: a proposal. Journal of Natural History, 40, 1285–1286.
Wheeler, Q.D. (2004) Taxonomic triage and the poverty of phylogeny. Transactions of Royal Society B, 359, 571–583.
Wheeler, Q.D. (2007) Invertebrate systematics or spineless taxonomy? Zootaxa, 1668, 11–18.
Wiens, J.J. (1999) Polymorphism in systematics and comparative biology. Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 30, 327–362.
Wiens, J.J. (Ed) (2000) Phylogenetic Analysis of Morphological Data. Smithsonian Institution Press, Comparative Evolutionary Biology Series, Washington DC, 220 pp.
Wiens, J.J. (2001) Character analysis in morphological phylogenetics: problems and solutions. Systematic Biology, 50, 689–699.
Wiens, J.J. (2007) Species delimitation: new approaches for discovering diversity. Systematic Biology, 56, 875–878.
Wiens, J.J. & Penkrot, T.A. (2002) Delimiting species using DNA and Morphological variation and discordant species limits in spiny lizards (Sceloporus). Systematic Biology, 51, 69–91.
Wiens, J.J. & Servedio, M.R. (2000) Species delimitation in systematics: inferring diagnostic differences between species. Proceedings of Royal Society London B, 267, 631–636.
Zhang, Z.Q. (2008) Zoological taxonomy at 250: showcasing species descriptions in the cyber era. Zootaxa, 1671,1–2.