[Taxacom] IPBES: a new challenge (not for cynics)

[Francisco Welter-Schultes]

Donat,
In my taxonomic field science is not as straightforward as your 
concept seems to imply, if I don't misunderstand you in important 
points.

It is not a question of mistakes, presence or absence of information, 
correctness or completeness of data or things like that, that leads 
me to taxonomic conclusions and finally will enable me to tell you 
how many species of a certain group we have in Europe. You must 
imagine such things in a much finer tuning. It is much more a 
question of how results are obtained and interpreted.

Maybe it is easier in other groups, but at least in molluscs science 
is not so easy. It is not done with looking up sufficient specimens 
and then the results will come automatically.

Francisco


University of Goettingen, Germany
www.animalbase.org