[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Thomas Pape]

The diagnosis does not comply with Article 13.1.1 because it does not mention any characters, and it does not point to a publication containing such characters.
The ICZN Glossary definition of character is "Any attribute of organisms ...". That a given population will cluster with certain other populations is not an organismal attribute.
/Thomas Pape, Natural History Museum of Denmark

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Thorpe
Sent: 6. juni 2010 02:48
To: fwelter at gwdg.de
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New lizard species

unfortunately, I must disagree that the new species descriptions fail to comply to Article 13.1.1.

Article 13.1.1 "be accompanied by a description or definition that states in words characters that are purported to differentiate the taxon"

'Diagnosis. This species includes all populations that cluster with those from the southern portion of the Congolian rainforest included in this study (southern Cameroon, Gabon and Congo), with strong support in the Bayesian species delimitation model' 
 
Francisco say: It would be equivalent to a statement "colour differs from species B", without announcing how it would differ. It makes no difference if a computer tells me under 99.999 % likelyhood that the colour differs
 
Article 13.1.1 does not explicitly rule out relative characters, so you could say something like "Diagnosis: 5mm larger on average than the other species", and that would be OK. The article also only explicitly requires you to specify the characters, and not how they differ. So you could just say "differs in size, shape, colour, texture, ..."
 
If the article is intended to be more restrictive, then this needs to be made explicit ...
 
Stephen


________________________________
From: Francisco Welter-Schultes <fwelter at gwdg.de>
To: fwelter at gwdg.de; Heath Blackmon <coleoguy at gmail.com>
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Sun, 6 June, 2010 5:53:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New lizard species

> couldn't the fact that when analyzed these populations sort in
> a certain way be considered a trait and thus satisfy the 
> requirements of 13.1.1?

No it cannot, this is the point. It would be equivalent to a 
statement "colour differs from species B", without announcing how it 
would differ. It makes no difference if a computer tells me under 
99.999 % likelyhood that the colour differs.

Francisco


University of Goettingen, Germany
www.animalbase.org

_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here



      
_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here