Registration of animal names

[Richard Pyle]

> <soap-box-on>
>
> If the taxonomic community is serious about activities such as
> GBIF, Species
> 2000, All Taxa and the like, then we may well need to take a good
> long look
> at how we work and question some of our long-held and fundamental beliefs.
> To suggest that sending a reprint of latest your taxonomic paper to London
> to be included in the "Global List of Life" is too much work or places too
> much responsibility on authors or will exclude some researchers who don't
> have access to postal services is total crap.  If we want truly global
> taxonomic initiatives to succeed then everyone must contribute.  I would
> have thought that sticking a reprint in an envelope and sending
> it to London
> (or wherever) would have paid huge dividends well beyond the
> minimal costs.
>
> <soap-box-off>

Here, here!  I would like to join you on that soap box.  I understand why
historically the thought of some centralized species "registration" system
may have been entirely too unpalatable for many taxonomists.  But looking
forward to the future, in the context of the electronic information age and
what lies ahead, I would dearly hope that the taxonomic community at large
would rally behind a movement to require some sort of centralized
registration of all future taxon names -- at least at the species, genus,
and perhaps family levels.  There comes a point when observation of
historical tradition imposes too much of a barrier to scientific progress,
and in my opinion we seem to be at or near that point on this particular
issue right now.  If mailing a reprint is too much effort, what about at
least filling out an on-line species registration web form, which includes
reference listing of the original description (or better yet, uploading
something like a PDF file of the original description)?  That would at least
be a step in the right direction.  Are there really that many active
taxonomists for whom accessing the internet is more cumbersome than
publishing an original description? If so, then I apologize.  But it seems
that if many journals now require electronic submission of manuscripts; an
assumption of internet access can't be too far behind...can it?

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle
Ichthyology, Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/bishop/HBS/pylerichard.html
"The views expressed are the author's, and not necessarily those of Bishop
Museum."