[Taxacom] GMOs and taxonomy

[Richard Zander]

Getting a species name does not make the GMO a species. Well, it does
but it really doesn't. 

Species names as being generally accepted as a valuable or potentially
valuable basic unit of taxonomy take years to "mature" scientifically
and epistemologically. I can name all GMO tomatoes "Lycopersicon
quasisaxum" but that does not make them a species. I expect that name
will take its place in the fullness of time alongside a myriad other
hypotheses of specieshood in the trash heap of systematics.

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Richard H. Zander 
Voice: 314-577-0276
Missouri Botanical Garden
PO Box 299
St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
richard.zander at mobot.org
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/
and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Modern Evolutionary Systematics Web site:
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/21EvSy.htm
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