[Taxacom] Taxonomic revision

Wed Oct 28 12:48:07 CDT 2009

Dear Fabian,

Here are some notes from the biosystematics class I give, with my
definitions, followed by those for "Revision" found in 3 texts.  As you
can see, there is considerable slop in the way a revision is defined. 
Take with a grain of salt, but in case they are useful, enjoy.

Mike
---------------

Ivie Class Lecture Notes

Hierarchy

Zoology			Botany (possibly incorrect or incomplete, zoologist writing here)
Isolated description		Isolated description
Fauna				Flora
Review (Synopsis)		Review or Conspectus
Revision			Revision
Monograph			Monograph

(Note, description and diagnosis are often used in opposite meaning in
botany and zoology.  The zoological usage is used here).

Isolated Descriptions are papers on new taxa, that provide a description
and diagnosis for a species (or other taxon) or interest.  It should cite
enough other literature on the group to provide context needed to identify
the new taxon, but may do nothing to change the understanding of the group
overall.

Fauna/ Floras provide taxonomic tools for a geographic area in a specific
temporal framework, usually recent (paleo uses them extensively). 
Distibutional and seasonal data are usually provided, but synonymies and
citations are usually selected for particular relevance.

A Review is taxonomic coverage of a previously defined group in a new but
somewhat superficial manner, usually based on few collections and from
literature rather than types of all species.  It has a key and hopefully
illustrations, but only diagnoses for previously described species.  It
provided updates on biology, distribution and synonymies, and may redefine
some species.  Reviews are very useful in groups with scattered literature
from many well-done Isolated Descriptions, for which a user would have a
hard time running down the needed literature to do a simple
identification.  Reviews should be credited positively when they take the
knowledge stored in a specialists head and collection, and makes it
generally available to the casual identifier.  Reviews do not usually deal
with phylogeny nor questions of monophyletic taxa.  Many papers titled
Revision are really reviews.

A revision is an updated, novel taxonomic system for a group, based on as
wide a selection of specimens as can be found, borrowed or examined
from/in many museums world-wide.  It requires at least the attempt to see
every type, provide a full synonymy of all taxonomic literature,
illustrate and redescribe every species (or other terminal taxon if not
species-based) based on revised concepts, and provides keys or
identification tools.  Usually a full list of all material examined is
provided.  Data sources should include previously used characters and new
ones.  In a really good revision, a phylogeny should be provided and used
to construct the revised taxonomy, but this may be published separately,
especially if the revision is the basis for taxon choice for a
multi-authored phylogenetic project, often molecular based.

A monograph is everything a revision is, plus a complete, exhaustive
review of all literature on a group, including non-systematic literature,
with very detailed data on every aspect of a group.  Relatively rarely
used in zoology, outside paleontology, where it has a slightly different
meaning, monographs are common in botany, although some of those better
fit the definition of revision.   Discovery that a really top-flight
monograph has been recently done on a group you have recently become
interested in is one of the nicest things that can happen to a biologist!

Other publication types useful for nomenclatural or distributional rather
than identification purposes include Checklists, Annotated Checklists,
Catalogs, and Atlases.

--------------

Winton 1999, p. 121
A revision  involves restudy of a group to correct or improve its
diagnosis, description or phylogeny.  As Mayr (1969) pointed out, this is
one of the most important types of scientific publication for groups in
which many new species are still being described.  Taxonomic revisions
include many papers in which new arrangements, shifts in the rank of
position or some of the included taxa, are proposed.  In a generic or
family revision, complete descriptions are usually given for every
species, whether or not they have been described before.  You cant always
tell whether a paper is a revision without reading through it, although
many do have Revision in the title.
------------------
Wiley 1981, p. 367
Revisionary Studies range from synopses and reviews to monographs Synopses
and reviews are shorter papers that summarize current knowledge of a
particular group.  At their best, they provide valuable source work in
which all of the scattered references to a group are brought together.
Revisions and monographs are more complete and usually include:

a. The complete taxonomic history of a  group.
b. A classification (which may or may not be phylogenetic)
c. Diagnoses and/or descriptions of each new species
d. A key or series of keys for identification
e. All pertinent literature references.

Revisions and mongraphs are the most demanding of all systematic works for
the phylogeneticist because the investigator  must combine the traditional
scholarship demanded of all taxonomists with the analytic techniques of
the phylogenetic classification.
--------------------------------
Mayr and Ashlock (1991) , p. 348

Revisions are taxonomic papers dealing with all the species of a species
group, genus or higher taxon.  They provide a critical analysis of all
nominal species and descriptions of previously undescribed species. 
Revisions vary greatly in completeness of treatment, ranging from synopses
 and reviews that merely summarize the literature to genuine monographs>
--------------------------

> Dear all,
>
> stupid question: is there soem nice crisp definition for a 'taxonomic
revision'.
>
> there seems to be a nice video (did not fully download yet) on what
taxonomy is about
> http://www.answers.com/topic/taxonomy
>
> best
> Fabian
>
>
>
> --
>
> **********************************************************
> fhaas at icipe.org, Extension -2052
>
> The African Insect Taxonomy Toolkit AITT
> http://taxonomy.icipe.org
>
>
> Dr. Fabian Haas
> Insect Taxonomist and ABS Specialist
> ICIPE - African Insect Science for Food and Health
> Duduville Campus, Kasarani
> P.O. Box 30772 - 00100
> N A I R O B I
> Kenya
>
> Telephone No. 	+254 (0)20 8632000
> Fax No.	+254 (0)20 8632001
> Cell Phone	+254 (0)728 132868
>
> This position is supported by CIM, the Centre for International
> Migration www.cimonline.de
>
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