[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Stephen Thorpe]

again, you too are imposing your own interpretation on what the Code actually says

there is no entry for 'attribute' in the ICZN glossary, so it has it's usual meaning

one online dictionary defines 'attribute' thus:

'a property, quality, or feature belonging to or representative of a person or thing'

nothing here implies that it has to be an intrinsic attribute, so it seems to me to be a perfectly fine attribute of an organism that it belong to a population which clusters with other populations ...

Stephen



________________________________
From: Thomas Pape <TPape at snm.ku.dk>
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Sun, 6 June, 2010 6:22:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New lizard species

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

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