[Taxacom] Generic type of large genus belongs in different genus

[Jim Croft]

Paul - I think you will find Rod has already had the operation... ;)

jim

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 6:00 PM, Paul van Rijckevorsel
<dipteryx at freeler.nl> wrote:
> Nomenclature and taxonomy are separate, and scientific
> names are the result of applying nomenclature to a
> taxonomically defined situation.
>
> But anybody who does not want to use scientific names
> can create his own reality and use his own (alphanumerical)
> identifiers, or use something like LSID's. And who knows,
> this approach may win out eventually, when everybody's
> brain has been augmented / replaced by computers.
>
> Paul
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Roderic Page" <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk>
> To: "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 9:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Generic type of large genus belongs in different
> genus
>
>
>> It seems to me that this discussion makes a mockery of notion that
>> nomenclature is separate from taxonomy. Once you have bionomial names, and
>> insist on those names being "meaningful" (i.e., the genus name tells you
>> something about relationships) then you have a recipe for instability.
>>
>> The ICZN decision regarding Drosophila melanogaster was the right one in
>> my opinion, but for the wrong reasons. Why does it matter if Drosophila
>> melanogaster sits in a phylogeny next to some Sophophora species? What
>> matters is its relationships, not what we call it.
>>
>> Names are a poor way to convey relationships, why burden them with this
>> role? If you have no other way of conveying relationships then perhaps the
>> trade off between stability and meaning seems worthwhile. But we do have
>> powerful ways of visualising relationships, so it seems perverse to
>> continue to change names (thus annoying people who use them) in the hope
>> that names remain "meaningful". We don't expect the name of an organism to
>> be meaningful ("maximus" might not be the biggest species, "africanus"
>> might come from Australia), can we not let this last scrap of meaning go
>> and save us (and the wider community) some grief?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Rod
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> Roderic Page
>> Professor of Taxonomy
>> Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
>> College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
>> Graham Kerr Building
>> University of Glasgow
>> Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
>>
>> Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
>> Tel: +44 141 330 4778
>> Fax: +44 141 330 2792
>> Skype: rdmpage
>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rdmpage
>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/rdmpage
>> Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com
>> Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html
>> Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderic_D._M._Page
>> Citations: http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=4Z5WABAAAAAJ
>> ORCID id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7101-9767
>>
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>> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>>
>>
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>
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>
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> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.



-- 
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~ http://about.me/jrc
'Without the freedom to criticize, there is no true praise.
- Pierre Beaumarchais
'Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to
pause and reflect.'
- Mark Twain
'A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point
of doubtful sanity.'
 - Robert Frost