[Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives

[bti at dsmz.de]

and those are the parts of the diversity on which all others  
depend.... An individual of Homo sapiens has anywhere in the region of  
800 - 1,000 species of micro-organism (prokaryotes, protozoa and  
mycota) living in or on him/her, all contributing to our well being.....

Brian

Quoting Stephen Thorpe <s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz>:

> micro-fungi and other micro-organisms not included!
>
> absurb [sic] or not, it is true for at least the terrestrial  
> arthropods, molluscs, etc.
>
> I have worked in collections and worked with samples for over a  
> decade, and been in the field many times ...
>
> S
>
> ________________________________
> From: Paul Kirk [p.kirk at cabi.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 February 2010 7:48 p.m.
> To: Stephen Thorpe; Richard Pyle; Tony.Rees at csiro.au; jim.croft at gmail.com
> Cc: Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: RE: [Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives
>
> That's the most absurb statement I have read this millenium ...  
> which planet are you living on - Pandora. The percentage you mention  
> is probably the reverse for the taxon I work on - 95% are unknown.  
> Lets be specific next time!
>
> Paul
>
> ________________________________
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu on behalf of Stephen Thorpe
> Sent: Wed 24/02/2010 06:19
> To: Richard Pyle; Tony.Rees at csiro.au; jim.croft at gmail.com
> Cc: Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives
>
>
>> Of course, there are vastly MORE undescribed taxa in the field than  
>> there are in collections, and one might make the reasonable  
>> predicition that a higher percentaage of the undescribed taxa in  
>> collections will still be available for examination a hundred years  
>> from now; compared with the undescribed taxa in the field
>
> In N.Z., probably 95% or so of all (not just known, but ALL)  
> terrestrial species in the wild are in collections, but many still  
> unrecognised in bulk samples etc. The problem is that many of them  
> are only represented in collections by insufficient material, but  
> until we know that, we don't know what to TARGET in the field, and  
> so we just end up collecting more and more bulk samples full of the  
> common taxa ...
>
> "Charity begins at home" and "Taxonomy begins in collections" ...
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Richard Pyle [deepreef at bishopmuseum.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 February 2010 7:02 p.m.
> To: Stephen Thorpe; Tony.Rees at csiro.au; jim.croft at gmail.com
> Cc: Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: RE: [Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives
>
>> Well, actually, I'd like to see them spending more of their
>> (paid) time DOING TAXONOMY,
>
> Agreed!  But part of "doing taxonomy" is spending time in the field.
> Because I wasn't in the lab this morning doing the other part of taxonomy, I
> wasn't in as good a position to make a smarmy post about that part of doing
> taxonomy.
>
>> which may or may not involve the
>> field (there are plenty of undescribed taxa already in
>> collections ...)
>
> Of course, there are vastly MORE undescribed taxa in the field than there
> are in collections, and one might make the reasonable predicition that a
> higher percentaage of the undescribed taxa in collections will still be
> available for examination a hundred years from now; compared with the
> undescribed taxa in the field.
>
> Rich
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