[Taxacom] Binomial Nomenclature - was: "cataloguing hypotheses & not real things"

Sun Sep 1 16:46:45 CDT 2013

If we went back to the start, I would have preferred that Linnaeus argued
for universal binomials, so that the perceived context of each taxon could
be identified.  But, then, we would also require unique identifiers for the
terminal entities.

David Patterson

On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 7:30 AM, Stephen Thorpe
<stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>wrote:

> I certainly don't propose that we all go the dino way! However, I suspect
> that if biodiversity informatics had been anticipated in the early days of
> naming and classification of species, we might well have done things
> differently. It really is an unprecedented complication to mix naming with
> relationships ...
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Michael A. Ivie <mivie at montana.edu>
> To: Fred Schueler <bckcdb at istar.ca>
> Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Monday, 2 September 2013 9:01 AM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Binomial Nomenclature - was: "cataloguing
> hypotheses & not real things"
>
>
> Dinosaur people already do this, over 90% of their genera are monotypic,
> so the genus is redundant and there is really only a uninomical.  Any
> suggestions that biologists do things the way dino people do it should be
> avoided.
>
> > On 9/1/2013 4:32 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> >> Binomial nomenclature could be interpreted in a uninomial way, i.e., the
> >> genus is just part of the name and carries no "baggage" (i.e. hypothesis
> >> or extra information)
> >
> > * that's what we proposed in 1972 - my point was that it would look like
> > it carried information. The point of the transition from polynomial to
> > binomial names was mnemonic - and a transition to uninominal practice
> > would still preserve the appearance of binominalism - nobody would be
> > able to tell that Rana-pipiens and Rana-aurora were now in different
> > genera - though on the other hand one could have a convention of putting
> > a changed generic name in brackets after the uninominal name so that
> > they'd be written as Rana-pipiens [Lithobates] and Rana-aurora - so
> > maybe my objection isn't as cogent as I thought it was.
> >
> > fred.
> > =========================================================
> >
> >
> >> *From:* Fred Schueler <bckcdb at istar.ca>
> >> *To:* taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> >> *Sent:* Monday, 2 September 2013 1:26 AM
> >> *Subject:* Re: [Taxacom] Binomial Nomenclature - was: "cataloguing
> >> hypotheses & not real things"
> >>
> >> On 9/1/2013 8:18 AM, Fred Schueler wrote:
> >>  > On 9/1/2013 5:58 AM, Dan Lahr wrote:
> >>  >
> >>  >> One of the things that I often wonder is why nobody ever suggested a
> >> more
> >>  >> logical, parsimonious and I suspect bioinformatics friendlier (not
> >> my area,
> >>  >> can someone confirm?) transition to uninomial nomenclature.
> >>  >
> >>  > nobody? - Rising, James D., and Frederick W.  Schueler.  1972.  How
> >>  > stable is binominal nomenclature?  Systematic Zoology 21:438-439 -
> >> it's
> >>  > been suggested many times, it's just that adoption would require
> >> large
> >>  > numbers of taxonomists to agree on something, which runs counter to
> >> the
> >>  > spirit of the Codes.
> >>
> >> * and just as a final comment for today, the big problem with uninominal
> >> nomenclature is that the only plausible starting point for it is a
> >> hypenation or something of the existing binominal names (Rising &
> >> Schueler, 1972), which would fix forever the existing generic
> >> arrangements in the minds of the taxonomically naive users, who are
> >> supposed to be the main beneficiary of uninominal names...
> >>
> >> fred.
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>            Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
> >> Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
> >> Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
> >> Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
> >>            RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
> >>    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
> >>      (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> >> methods:
> >>
> >> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org/
> >>
> >> (2) a Google search specified as:
> >> site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
> >>
> >> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
> > Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
> > Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
> > Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
> >          RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
> >    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
> >    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
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> > http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
> >
> > The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> > methods:
> >
> > (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org/
> >
> > (2) a Google search specified as:
> > site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
> >
> > Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
> >
>
>
> --
> Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.
> Montana Entomology Collection
> Marsh Labs, Room 50
> NW corner of Lincoln and S.19th
> 1911 West Lincoln Street
> Montana State University
> Bozeman, MT 59717
> USA
>
> (406) 994-4610 (voice)
> (406) 994-6029 (FAX)
> mivie at montana.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> methods:
>
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org/
>
> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>
> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>
> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> methods:
>
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>
> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>

-- 

David J Patterson

Research Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Professor (MBL) Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Emeritus Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney,
Australia