[Taxacom] People and databases

[Bob Mesibov]

Hi, Stephen.

A remarkable example! The 2009 Grebennikov & Newton paper can be downloaded free:

http://www.eje.cz/pdfarticles/1451/eje_106_2_275_Grebennikov.pdf

and is well worth reading. It involves morphology vs molecules, the whole issue of 'how much support is needed to recognise a clade?' and what to do about 'historic' paraphyly in classifications, and it incidentally establishes Staphylinidae as the largest family in Animalia.

As a millipede person I always feel humbled reading about beetle taxonomy. The 2009 report from the International Institute of Species Exploration (http://species.asu.edu/files/IISE_SOS_2009.pdf) says that of the 18516 new species of life described in calendar year 2007, 3735 were beetles.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Website: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html