[Taxacom] OK Taxacomers, you have had your chance, now it's the lawyers turn.

[Beach, James H.]

Lawyers decide the definition of 'species'.

>From the article:

Today, PLF and several allied organizations submitted a petition for rule-making<https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ESA-Taxonomy-Rulemaking-Petition.pdf> to the [U.S.] federal agencies that administer the Endangered Species Act.

...

Our petition seeks an end to the arbitrariness [of what a species is] through the setting of clear, scientifically defensible and politically sensible definitions for the statutory terms "species" and "subspecies." The petition recommends that, for the former, the longstanding and well-regarded biological species concept be adopted, according to which a species is delimited by reproductive isolation. For the latter, the petition asks for the adoption of a variant of the equally longstanding "75% rule," pursuant to which individuals within a species must be diagnosed accurately at least 75% of the time as belonging to putative Subspecies A or B or C, etc., using genetic or other biologically significant characters.


https://pacificlegal.org/a-petition-to-resolve-the-endangered-species-act-taxonomy-debate/




James H. Beach
Biodiversity Institute
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Office: 785-864-4645
Cell: 785-331-8508
Zoom: https://kansas.zoom.us/my/specify