[Taxacom] Morphological characters was New lizard species

[Stephen Thorpe]

to continue the hand tool metaphor even further, you (and others) are trying to use a hammer as a screwdriver. I think we all agree that the new lizard authors did a particularly poor job of taxonomic description in this case, misapplying taxonomy to what was really just something like phylogeography. But they made sure that they did it in a Code compliant way, by designating types and offering diagnoses. So their names are available. So criticise them for what they did badly (the taxonomy), not for what they did correctly (the nomenclature), and don't listen to those who are twisting the meanings of the nomenclatural rules to try to make the bad taxonomy "go away" ...

Stephen



________________________________
From: Barry Roth <barry_roth at yahoo.com>
To: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
Sent: Wed, 9 June, 2010 4:32:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Morphological characters was New lizard species

"Hatchet job" really mischaracterizes the posts that address the nomenclatural issues of the New Lizard authors.  Very early in this thread, Dr. Rosenberg correctly -- if I may continue in the vein of hand tool metaphor -- hit the nail on the head with regard to the nomenclatural shortcomings of the paper in question.  It astonishes me how the difference between a statement that "there are differences" and one that specifies the observed differences, seems to have been hard for some to grasp.  As a land snail specialist, I don't care very much whether lizard specialists have one, two, four, or twenty more species on their roster.  It might be interesting indeed to find out that the "action" in lizard speciation was in the genes, not in the gross morphology.  But it is of interest to me that taxonomic description gets done the right way.  (I still recommend the book "Describing Species" by Judith Winston to people who need a handbook.)  When the
language of an argument verges on the intemperate -- as now in this thread -- it does not strengthen the speaker/writer's position.  On the contrary.
 
Barry Roth

--- On Tue, 6/8/10, Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz> wrote:


yes, but I am not the one trying to do a hatchet job on some new lizard names by insisting that their diagnosis does not comply with Article 13.1.1
[...]


      
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