[Taxacom] Dark taxa: GenBank in a post-taxonomic world

[Curtis Clark]

On 2011-04-13 10:09, Roderic Page wrote:
> So I guess the issue is what are the processes involved. If we assume:
>
> 1. a large set of taxa
> 2. a finite set of taxonomists who have identified a subset of those taxa
> 3. the rate of species description is lower than the rate at which "species"are added to GenBank
> 4. the order in which taxa are sequenced correlates with how well known they are (or how easy they are to identify)
>
> then it seems reasonable to expect curves like the ones in the blog post. I take it your argument is we need not invoke a decline in the output of taxonomy, nor a cavalier attitude towards taxonomy by sequencing jockeys, it's just a consequence of these assumptions.
>
Exactly. I'm not saying there isn't a decline or a cavalier attitude, 
but rather that your analysis can only point to those on comparison with 
a null model that takes the points above into consideration.

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Curtis Clark
Cal Poly Pomona