biodiversity snappers

[Karstad-Schueler]

Taxacomers,

On 4 November, we're having an extravagant "opening gala" for our museum
[anyone from the vicinity of eastern Ontario who hasn't heard of this and
might be interested in coming can e-mail me privately]. Among all the
logistic preparations, we're accumulating pithy epigrams or snappers or
one-liners more-or-less related to biodiversity or museum oerations or
founding, which will be deployed on little banners on toothpicks on the
snacks. I've appended our preliminary list, and we'd be glad to exhange
duplicates from others' similar lists. The audience will range from
taxonomists to the general public.

We're especially looking for phyletic statements modelled on our old
saying "Blessed were the Rhipidistian Crossopterygians for they begot
Ichthyostegaloid Labyrinthodont Amphibians" on the template "Blessed were
the <otherwise obscure taxon> for they begot <widely known and speciose
taxon>."

fred schueler.
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         Eastern    Ontario    Biodiversity    Museum
                Grenville Co, Ontario, Canada
(RR#2 Oxford Station, K0G 1T0) (613)258-3107   bckcdb at istar.ca
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Indeed, if we could visualize the phenetic position of all organisms,
past and present, we would find that they represent a dendrogram in
hyperspace, outlining the phyletic history of living creatures. Sokal &
Sneeth, Numerical Taxonomy

Blessed were the Rhipidistian Crossopterygians for they begot
Ichthyostegaloid Labyrinthodont Amphibians.

Well it's gone (another hour) - and we haven't published anything!  FWS
28 Sept 1975

You'd pay extra for those in Massachusetts.  F.D. Ross, 1978

Some of us get our best work done... do we ever get our best work done?
FWS 20 Sept 1978

...the subspecies was a Cheshire Cat, and the more you looked at it, the
more it disappeared.  Slater, 1978

If the Lord had meant us to fly, he would never have given us the
railway.  Flanders & Swann

All generalizations are untrue - including this one. FWS III

Leaving fewer offspring than possible is not only selected against, it in
and of itself is selection against itself.

The example of biological nomenclature, which governs the naming of the
Earth's biodiversity with minimal legislation and little enforcement or
jurisprudence, inspires a naturalist to believe that autonomous anarchist
systems can order large enterprises.

I have no desire for riches. Honest poverty, and a conscience cleared by
virtuous inaction, are more to me than corner lots and praise. Mark Twain

Caution: Wildflowers, slippery when wet. Karen Karstad  11 Jan 1983

Of course, I've got my own ox to gore.  Eric Kierns, 5 June 1984

I would like to drive the comparability of geographic variation studies
back into the "Methods" section. FWS 16 Jan 1983

It takes a swamp and tideflat zoologist to tell you about life. Loren
Eisley, The Immense Journey, p 151.

I bet that's interesting to you in ways that you can't explain to me.
Peter Gzowski 28 Dec 1992

We're not sure what that was, but we apologize for those technical
difficulties. CBC 11 Feb 1994

Picnics are ephemeral. Rose van der Ham 16 July 1993

Studies have shown that white reflects more light than any other colour.
Kemptville Advance 21 Nov 1990

I never know what I'm incapable of until I don't give it a try. Big Bobby
Clobber (RCAF) 24 April 1993

Prolly got in in the usual Earwig way - sheer insolence - failure to
recognize Man as the dominant species on the planet. FWS, QCC Cliff
House, 28 Aug 1989

The American Duct Tape Council reminds you that, in the long term, all
solutions are temporary anyways. Garrison Keilor 1996.

Freedom's just another word for not caring about the quality of your
work. Dilbert 1996.