vanishing taxonomists

[Fabio Moretzsohn]

Tom Parker wrote:

>The Directory of Zoological Taxonomists of the World was published in 1961
>for the Society of Systematic Zoology.  It is name-alphabetized and also
>organized phyla and class expertise interest.  It also contains some
>habitat preferences for each taxonomist and their affiliated institution.
> As this predates our modern spreadsheets, resorting and filtering is not
>possible.
>
>In the preamble to this book, it implies that 9000 taxonomists were
>candidates for listing. The book has slightly more than 400 pages.
>
>As the introduction lays out some of the methods used in compiling this
>book, and that the NSF was the original grant agency for its creation,
>possibly a new modern version could be attempted....making worthile
>comparison between two such catalogs possible.

One way to obtain the data on taxonomists, their field of expertise,
geographical distribution, etc, could be done relatively easy through an
initiative such as ITIS' TRED (Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory)
(http://www.nbii.gov/datainfo/syscollect/tred/index.html  ). This directory
is restricted to the North American biota. Another project, with a worlwide
scope is the World Taxonomist Database at ETI (Expert Center for Taxonomic
Identification) (http://www.eti.uva.nl/Database/WTD.html). This site says
that there is an estimated 5000 experienced taxonomists worldwide (I guess
not only in zoology). If this figure is correct, then a quick comparison
with the figure from the book quoted by Tom Parker shows a great decrease
from the estimated zoological taxonomists (9000) in 1961.

An online database on taxonomists is an useful tool to locate experts in one
group, but I can see how some people would prefer not to register nor to be
listed publicly - one of the reasons for not wanting publicity might be that
it could bring more unpaid requests for identification. But with today's
powerful search engines one can track just about anyone who is actively
working in the field.

I would encourage people on this list to consider registering with the World
Taxonomist Database or similar database, and spread the word to colleagues.
The more complete and up-to-date the database the better.

Aloha,  Fabio

Fabio Moretzsohn
PhD candidate
Department of Zoology
University of Hawaii
2538 the Mall
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
fmoretz at hawaii.edu