[Taxacom] Nomina nuda and genbank?

[Roderic Page]

In a sense this is the real strength of GenBank -- it isn't based on  
names, it's based on sequences. It's perhaps the only large-scale  
biodiversity database that has actual data about organisms (as opposed  
to data about collection events and literature, say).

Hence, it is possible to do analyses on the data and check the  
taxonomy (e.g., these two sequences are identical but have different  
names, therefore there's a problem). I'm struggling to think of any  
other biodiversity database that we can do computations over in this  
way.

Regards

Rod

On 30 Oct 2009, at 23:01, Jim Croft wrote:

> but the real worry is that with all the focus on names, nomenclature
> and IC*N the identification and the circumscription of the taxon
> concept to which the organism in question belongs gets lost.
>
> the name can only do so much.  sometime someone has to look at a
> specimen and make or confirm a decision.
>
> biodiversity starts with a live 'thing'. all else is abstraction
> (warning: personal ideology alert!)...
>
> jim
>
> On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 5:50 AM, Roderic Page <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk>  
> wrote:
>> Re "taxonomic names used in GenBank cannot be modified or updated",
>> this is incorrect. GenBank can and does update names (for example  
>> frog
>> names have been changed in recent years following the Frost el al.
>> paper), and they will also merge/delete names. The real issue is that
>> there's isn't an easy mechanism for the community to contribute to
>> this process.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Rod
>>
>> On 30 Oct 2009, at 17:36, Francisco Welter-Schultes wrote:
>>
>>> The taxonomic standard of GenBank is not very high. We know cases
>>> where gene sequences were deposited under incorrect names because
>>> species were misidentified, it was not possible to correct the names
>>> afterwards. The taxonomic names used in GenBank cannot be
>>> modified or updated, even if new generic or specific classifications
>>> are unanimously accepted in the community. In such an environment
>>> presence of nomina nuda cannot be regarded as a problem.
>>>
>>> Francisco
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> University of Goettingen, Germany
>>> www.animalbase.org
>>>
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>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> Roderic Page
>> Professor of Taxonomy
>> DEEB, FBLS
>> Graham Kerr Building
>> University of Glasgow
>> Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
>>
>> Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
>> Tel: +44 141 330 4778
>> Fax: +44 141 330 2792
>> AIM: rodpage1962 at aim.com
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>> Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either  
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>>
>> (1) http://taxacom.markmail.org
>>
>> Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/ 
>> pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> _________________
> Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
> http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
> ... in pursuit of the meaning of leaf ...
> ... 'All is leaf' ('Alles ist Blatt') - Goethe
>

---------------------------------------------------------
Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
DEEB, FBLS
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 4778
Fax: +44 141 330 2792
AIM: rodpage1962 at aim.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1112517192
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rdmpage
Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com
Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html