[Taxacom] LSID versus names

[Fautin, Daphne G.]

The LAN is supposed to be an authoritative list for zoology.  (It is described in Article 79; 79.4.1 reads "A name occurring in an adopted Part of the List of Available Names in Zoology is deemed be an available name and to have the spelling, date, and authorship recorded in the List (despite any evidence to the contrary).")  It is just beginning to be assembled, however.  The Lists and Indexes are also definitive for the names on them.  But all of that is nomenclature, not taxonomy.


Daphne G. Fautin
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Curator, Natural History Museum (Biodiversity Institute)
University of Kansas
1200 Sunnyside Avenue
Lawrence, Kansas 66045 USA

telephone 1-785-864-3062
fax 1-785-864-5321
skype user name daphne.fautin
evo user name fautin
website: invertebratezoology.biodiversity.ku.edu/home
cv: www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/daphne.html

    database of hexacorals, including sea anemones
       newest version released 19 August 2011
hercules.kgs.ku.edu/Hexacoral/Anemone2/index.cfm

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] on behalf of Jim Croft [jim.croft at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 7:20 AM
To: Roderic Page
Cc: TAXACOM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] LSID versus names

This kind of thinking is a big problem and one of the reasons we get
into messes like this. NONE of these databases is authoritative.  They
are not mentioned in the Code, they have not legislated priority and
have no official standing in nomenclature or taxonomy at all. They are
at best useful and reliable indices to the literature (with the type
and cited specimens, the real authority), at worst, incomplete
perpetuators of falsehoods.

There is no point looking for a single point of truth when there isn't
one. Well ok, it might be core business for religion and politics. But
it is not going to work for nomenclature and taxonomy, unless we
change the Code radically and create one (ducks quickly, to avoid the
ugly reg* word).

jim

On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 5:42 PM, Roderic Page <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
> Plant people are
> somewhat better off with IPNI, although one could argue whether we should
> regard IPNI, Tropics, or the Plant List as the definitive authority.

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