[Taxacom] GMOs and taxonomy

[Richard Jensen]

Anything that has been validly assigned a specific epithet is, from a 
nomenclatural perspective, a species. We hope that it is also, in the 
context of some fundamental understanding of what is meant, a species 
from a "biological/ecological/evolutionary" perspective. That's why I 
view nomenclatural species as hypotheses - they should represent some 
real entity in nature and we should be able to demonstrate this by means 
of suitable tests of our ability to consistently delimit them.

Cheers,

Dick J

Richard Jensen, Professor
Department of Biology
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-284-4674



Richard Zander wrote:
> 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.
>
> *****************************
> 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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