[Taxacom] Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from Africa

Fri Dec 11 17:13:08 CST 2015

Actually, I pressed 'send' instead of 'cancel', by mistake, after deciding that I couldn't be bothered elaborating. Quickly, I meant that it should be reserved for exceptional contributions, not just another 60 dragonflies. I'm skeptical of the idea that if you keep saying the same thing often enough, people will start to listen. I think that they may just as easily "turn off" to the message if it keeps being shouted in exaggerated contexts.

--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 12/12/15, John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from Africa
 To: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
 Cc: "Torbjørn Ekrem" <torbjorn.ekrem at ntnu.no>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>, "info at pensoft.net" <info at pensoft.net>
 Received: Saturday, 12 December, 2015, 12:05 PM

 How
 sparingly? 
 On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at
 6:03 PM, Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
 wrote:
 But it
 should be used sparingly

 --------------------------------------------

 On Sat, 12/12/15, Torbjørn
 Ekrem <torbjorn.ekrem at ntnu.no>
 wrote:

  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Nature needs names: 60 new
 dragonflies from Africa

  To: "John Grehan" <calabar.john at gmail.com>

  Cc: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>,
 "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu"
 <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>,
 "info at pensoft.net"
 <info at pensoft.net>

  Received: Saturday, 12 December, 2015, 11:59 AM

  Or perhaps the authors

  had a proper plan with their public outreach! I applaud
 any

  effort, small or large, that shows the public what
 taxonomy

  is about and why it is important for our society.

  Torbjørn

  > Den 11. des. 2015 kl. 23.42 skrev John

  Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com>:

  >

  > Every now and then,

  for one reason or another, a particular taxonomic

  > contribution will gain greater general

  attention, perhaps due to the style,

  >

  approach, presentation, techniques etc, used by the
 authors,

  sometimes

  > perhaps for other reasons.

  That's just the way it is. Life never promised a

  > rose garden.

  >

  > John Grehan

  >

  > On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 5:36 PM, Stephen

  Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>

  > wrote:

  >

  >> Another example, just published, of a

  less hyped but bigger contribution,

  >>

  is

  >>

  >>

  Liebherr, J.K. 2015: The Mecyclothorax beetles
 (Coleoptera,

  Carabidae,

  >> Moriomorphini) of

  Haleakala-, Maui: Keystone of a hyperdiverse Hawaiian

  >> radiation. ZooKeys, 544: 1-407. doi:

  10.3897/zookeys.544.6074

  >>

  >> In this case, the new names are

  ZooBank registered, but, unfortunately, it

  >> looks like there was a glitch:

  >>

  >> http://zoobank.org/References/C5978BD0-145B-40F8-ACDE-B27371B7B9A4

  >>

  >> Stephen

  >>

  >>

  --------------------------------------------

  >> On Sat, 12/12/15, Roderic Page <Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk>

  wrote:

  >>

  >>

  Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Nature needs names: 60 new

  dragonflies from Africa

  >> To:

  "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu"

  <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>

  >> Cc: "Ellinor Michel" <e.michel at nhm.ac.uk>

  >> Received: Saturday, 12 December, 2015,

  4:38 AM

  >>

  >>

  Hi Ellinor,

  >>

  >> I guess I’d argue that the

  >> fact we feel the need to celebrate

  this and the attention it

  >> brings to

  taxonomy is in part a consequence of the limited

  >> reusability of taxonomic publications

  in the first place. We

  >> should be

  aiming for reuse by everyone interested in

  >> biodiversity data (e.g., the modellers

  using GBIF data, the

  >> phylogenetists

  grabbing sequences from GenBank to build

  >> trees, and so on). Maximising reuse

  helps make the case for

  >> the

  importance of taxonomy, I would argue it’s a better

  >> argument than the occasional

  spectacular monograph of some

  >>

  beautiful insects.

  >>

  >> Regards

  >>

  >> Rod

  >>

  >>

  >> On 11 Dec

  >> 2015, at 11:59, Ellinor Michel <e.michel at nhm.ac.uk<mailto:

  >> e.michel at nhm.ac.uk>>

  >> wrote:

  >>

  >> Hi Rod

  >>

  >> Your comments are valid, but

  >> surely directed to the authors! I

  posted this on their

  >> behalf, as I

  have more ready access to Taxacom posting at

  >> the moment. You might want to broaden

  the target your

  >> comments, as the

  story has been picked up by Science, and a

  >> number of other outlets. Overall,

  I'd say its terrific

  >> that some

  taxonomic groundwork is being celebrated.

  >>

  >> http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/12/explosion-new-dragonfly-species-results-animals-named-after-gorillas-pink-floyd

  >>

  >> I'm just

  guessing, but

  >> there are likely to

  be constraints on publishing costs from

  >> the authors' perspective so that

  OA was not an option.

  >> Thus the

  focus of this kind of very constructive criticism

  >> on your part should be the

  administrations of the

  >>

  organisations that the authors work for, the science

  funding

  >> agencies, and the

  publishers.

  >>

  >> In the meantime, this nice short

  publicity also

  >> does a nice job for

  publicising the topic, with beautiful

  >> photos

  >>

  >> http://africageographic.com/blog/60-new-species-dragonflies-discovered-africa/

  >>

  >> Cheers,

  >> Ellinor

  >>

  >> ________________________________

  >> From: Roderic Page [Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk<mailto:

  >> Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk>]

  >> Sent: 11 December 2015 11:42

  >> To: Ellinor Michel

  >> Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>

  >> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Nature needs

  names: 60

  >> new dragonflies from

  Africa

  >>

  >> Hi

  Ellinor,

  >>

  >>

  While I applaud the effort, and the dragonflies

  >> are wonderful, it’s hard to applaud

  the way this paper has

  >> been

  published:

  >>

  >> Does it in

  >> an

  open access journal? No

  >> Does the

  article

  >> have a DOI so that it can

  be easily cited? No

  >> Are the names

  registered with ZooBank? No

  >> Are the

  DNA sequences available in GenBank?

  >>

  No

  >> Is the data available for

  downloading?

  >> No*

  >> Has the distributional data been

  >> deposited in GBIF? No

  >>

  >> I

  >> don’t wish to take away from what

  has clearly been a lot

  >> of work, but

  surely we need to think about the best way to

  >> make all this hard work as widely

  accessible as possible? A

  >> PDF with

  wonderful pictures of dragonflies and low

  >> resolution maps does not represent the

  best that modern

  >> taxonomic

  publishing can offer.

  >>

  >> Regards

  >>

  >> Rod

  >>

  >> * The articles says "A

  >> list of collection codes and

  corresponding BOLD numbers can

  >> be

  down- loaded from the journal website (http://www.odonatologica.com)”

  >> This is

  >> not a

  link to the data, which I can’t see anywhere on the

  >> web site.

  >>

  >>

  ---------------------------------------------------------

  >> 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:  Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk<mailto:Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk

  >>> <mailto:Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk>

  >> Tel:  +44 141 330
 4778

  >> Skype:  rdmpage

  >> Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rdmpage

  >> LinkedIn:  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/rdmpage

  >> Twitter:  http://twitter.com/rdmpage

  >> Blog:  http://iphylo.blogspot.com<http://iphylo.blogspot.com/>

  >> ORCID:  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7101-9767

  >> Citations:  http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=4Z5WABAAAAAJ

  >> ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roderic_Page

  >>

  >>

  >> On 11 Dec

  >>

  2015, at 11:14, Ellinor Michel <e.michel at nhm.ac.uk<mailto:

  >> e.michel at nhm.ac.uk><mailto:e.michel at nhm.ac.uk>>

  >> wrote:

  >>

  >> [posted on behalf of

  >> the primary author, Klaas-Douwe

  'KD' B. Dijkstra]

  >>

  >> 'Dear colleagues,

  >>

  >> All

  awareness, conservation

  >> and

  research of nature starts with the question: which

  >> species is that? Names introduce

  species to humanity. It’s

  >> a

  biologist’s greatest importance today, but just now

  >> nature is under historic pressure,

  such research is getting

  >> less

  support.

  >>

  >>

  We aim to

  >> expose this paradox by

  naming 60 new dragonflies from

  >>

  Africa, increasing the number known by almost 10% at

  once.

  >> All are colourful and

  conspicuous, representing some of the

  >> most sensitive and beautiful of all

  biodiversity:

  >> freshwater, Earth’s

  most dense and threatened species

  >>

  richness — Africa, the continent that will change
 most

  in

  >> the 21st century — and

  dragonflies, the insects that may

  >>

  be among the best gauges of global change.

  >>

  >> We hope this

  message will be

  >> heard widely, so

  please share this as you wish, e.g. on

  >> blogs and to the local media,

  particularly in Africa

  >> itself.

  >>

  >> Press

  release: https://goo.gl/KGMsyC

  >> Info and images: https://goo.gl/vRoJSL

  >> Full publication:

  >>

  www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads<

  >> http://www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads><

  >> http://www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads><

  >> http://www.osmylus.com/index.php/downloads>

  >> Watch discovery of new species in DR

  Congo:

  >> youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU<http://youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU><

  >> http://youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU><http://youtu.be/Arr2k7dwzSU>

  >>

  >> Best wishes,

  also on behalf of

  >> my co-authors

  Jens and Nico, who have both made their

  >> exceptional contributions in their

  free time!

  >>

  >> Klaas-Douwe 'KD' B.

  >> Dijkstra

  >>

  Naturalis Biodiversity Center,

  >>

  Leiden, The Netherlands

  >>

  Conservation Ecology

  >> and

  Entomology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

  >> science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra<http://science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra><

  >> http://science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra><http://science.naturalis.nl/dijkstra

  >>

  >> '

  >>

  _______________________________________________

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  >>

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  28 years of

  >> Taxacom in 2015.

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  28 years of Taxacom in 2015.

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