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

[Michael Heads]

I agree with Rich - this is a magnificent paper. The maps in particular are
superb (Rod's 'low-resolution' comment is way off the mark). Just one
example: the maximum diversity of dragonflies in Africa (Map 2) is shown to
occur around the *margins* of the Congo 'cuvette centrale' (a Cretaceous
epicontinental sea, with uplift in late Cretaceous).  This fascinating
pattern is, in my opinion, one of the keys to African biogeography (see my
book 'Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics' Fig. 5.2 and p. 228). The
dragonflies provide one of the clearest cases I've seen - not surprising,
given the group's love of swamps.

The title may be a bit intimidating, but Odonatologica is one of the best
biology journals in the world at the moment. It's a classic example of the
'ground-up' approach to global biodiversity.

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 6:14 PM, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>
wrote:

> Oh, and by the way... I spent a few hours going through the Odonata paper
> in some detail yesterday and I have to say that, speaking as one of the
> 0.000002% of the world's population who is a taxonomist, I was extremely
> impressed with the quality of the work (to whatever extent an ichthyologist
> can evaluate an entomological paper). Each species description spans
> several pages and includes robust information on taxonomic context,
> material studied, both genetic and morphological data, and range & ecology,
> and each description also includes multiple figures (including color) and
> an etymology section. The seven pages of introductory text are extremely
> well-written and covers a wide range of important topics that we often
> ramble endlessly about here on Taxacom, such as why naming species is
> important for conservation, why taxonomy needs more support, and why
> species MATTER (for understanding history, environment, evolution, and for
> humanity).  So it seems to me that the authors did a superb job both
> scientifically, and from the perspective of drawing people's attention to
> the issues that really matter.
>
> Aloha,
> Rich
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stephen Thorpe [mailto:stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz]
> > Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2015 11:15 AM
> > To: 'Stephen Thorpe'; deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
> > Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Fwd: Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from
> > Africa
> >
> > Rich,
> >
> > I didn't say significance of the taxonomy TO WHOM! Also, I very much
> doubt
> > that policy-makers get their information from the popular media!
> >
> > Stephen
> >
> > --------------------------------------------
> > On Mon, 14/12/15, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org> wrote:
> >
> >  Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Fwd: Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies
>  from
> >       Africa
> >  To: "'Stephen Thorpe'" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
> >  Received: Monday, 14 December, 2015, 10:04 AM
> >
> >  Sorry.... one more, then
> >  I'll shut up:
> >
> >  > So, I
> >  was just suggesting that media coverage should be  proportional to the
> >
> > significance of the  taxonomy, and elevating 60 new dragonflies out of
> all  >
> > proportion seems wrong to me.
> >
> >  I would argue that media
> >  coverage should be proportional to the likelihood that it  will
> actually influence
> > non-biologists (particularly  policy-makers).  There is a poor (perhaps
> even
> > inverse?)  correlation between what a good taxonomist will find of
> significance,
> > and what will be significant to the rest of  the 99.999998% of the
> > population.  We don't need the  media coverage to inspire the ~15,000
> > taxonomists of the  world; it's the other 7 billion (ish) that we're
> trying to
> > engage.
> >
> >  Aloha,
> >  Rich
>
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-- 
Dunedin, New Zealand.

My books:

*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press,
New York. 1999. (With R. Craw and J. Grehan).
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Bm0_QQ3Z6GUC
<http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Bm0_QQ3Z6GUC&dq=panbiogeography&source=gbs_navlinks_s>



*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press,
Berkeley. 2012. www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271968



*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge. 2014. www.cambridge.org/9781107041028



*Biogeography and evolution in New Zealand. *Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton
FL. 2016. www.tandf.net/books/details/9781498751872/