[Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives

[Tony.Rees at csiro.au]

Dear all,

The problem that Rich et al. are addressing actually only has a few parts (although quite possibly I have missed something...)

1. Some/most taxa have more than one name (or name variants - especially including author + year)
2. Some/many names can refer to more than one taxon (especially at genus level)
3. Some taxa can be more than one taxon (and vice versa)
4. Most taxa can be placed in more than one higher classification (and sometimes change rank as well)
5. New taxa / name combinations / spelling variants are appearing all the time, in an uncontrolled manner (except maybe in Bacteria)
6. All/any of the above can (and generally have) change/d through time, or according to who you talk to.

That's it, I think... not too hard, surely? 
(I guess I am ignoring misidentifications and misapplied names in the above, to keep it simple...)

Regards - Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Sent: Friday, 19 February 2010 6:24 AM
To: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org; dipteryx at freeler.nl; Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [ExternalEmail] Re: [Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives

Dear all,

Rich Pyle wrote...

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...C. sodalis (Le Conte 1848)
C. sodalis (Le Conte)
C. sodalis (LeC., 1848)
C. sodalis (LeC. 1848)
C. sodalis (LeC.)
C. sodalis (LeC)
....and that's just a fraction of the possible variations!
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