[Taxacom] source of quote about keys: PS

[Frederick W. Schueler]

> ________________________________________
> From: Robin Leech [releech at telus.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 September 2009 10:19 a.m.
> To: Stephen Thorpe; Steve Marshall; Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] source of quote about keys

> 
> Your reasoning tells me:
> 1. Keys are made for phylogenetic/classification purposes.
> 2. Keys are made for identification purposes.
> 
> When I taught taxonomic entomology and taxonomic botany,
> I made it very clear to students that keys have one, and only one, purpose:
>     IDENTIFICATION.

* or to phrase it a little differently, case 1 is what used to be called 
a "natural key," which follows the classification (which would now be 
apomorphies), while (2) is an "artificial key" which does whatever 
facilitates identification. I've always labelled all the keys I've 
written "artificial keys," and recently this has generated puzzled looks 
from reviewers, but from the lack of this terminology in the present 
thread, I guess that the adjective is no longer required.

fred.
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If we'd been meant to refer to species by made-up vernacular names,
God wouldn't have created Linnaeus!
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