[Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

[Stephen Thorpe]

well, Bob, I agree about passionate taxonomists, but only the older ones ... the 
problem is lack of recruitment ...




________________________________
From: Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Sat, 23 April, 2011 7:20:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

"but... So..."

Why 'but'? I'm just pointing out that there is a worthwhile hybrid solution. I'm 
not claiming it will apply in all cases. How to prioritise taxonomic work is 
another kettle of fish. Dan Bickel has argued that particular groups get worked 
on for long periods *mainly* because individual taxonomists are passionate about 
them.

In my experience, the devotion of taxonomists to particular groups extends well 
past the use-by dates of any grants or in-house support the taxonomists get, and 
stretches into an often productive retirement. On the other hand, people apply 
to join short-term 'pure systematics' projects because they have experience in 
molecular methods and inference software; passionate interest in the taxon being 
tackled is not a requirement for the job.

So PBIs and their ilk bring together both sorts of people in a productive 
relationship, and there are many individual systematists who use both molecular 
and non-molecular methods in doing both straight taxonomy and phylogenetics on 
their favourite taxa. Given all this variety in the working world, it's a bit 
hard for me to see clean divisions between a poorly-supported, abstract 
'taxonomy' and a better-funded, abstract 'systematics' (molecular or not). No 
offense: I understand your argument, I just can't overlay it neatly on the 
funding and activity picture I see in 2011.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570