[Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives

Stephen Thorpe s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz
Wed Feb 24 01:21:22 CST 2010


probably not all contributing to our well being.....

Anyway, so microbiologists should get out "in the field" more, but my point applies to other "species of taxonomists"

________________________________________
From: bti at dsmz.de [bti at dsmz.de]
Sent: Wednesday, 24 February 2010 8:16 p.m.
To: Stephen Thorpe
Cc: Paul Kirk; Richard Pyle; Tony.Rees at csiro.au; jim.croft at gmail.com; Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] the hurdle for all biodiv informatics initiatives

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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