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

[Stephen Thorpe]

I'm not sure that it is the role of the taxonomist to worry about what criteria are used to decide on protection of threatened taxa? Of course, as a person, you may be a taxonomist who does care about that, but it is not really part of the job as taxonomist. Let the 'crats decide on criteria for protection, it is their job (and you probably can't influence them much, anyway).

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 29/11/17, David Campbell <pleuronaia at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] OK Taxacomers, you have had your chance, now it's the lawyers turn.
 To: 
 Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Wednesday, 29 November, 2017, 11:40 AM
 
 Any differences between organisms
 can be taken as potential evidence of
 reproductive isolation - what qualifies under
 one species concept can be
 argued to fit the
 biological species concept.  Select the right criterion,
 and it shouldn't be hard to allocate
 individuals.  Thus, the wording alone
 of
 the petition is not the problem, but rather that, given the
 source, the
 intent is "you haven't
 proven that they can't interbreed, so they
 shouldn't
 be protected" or "my
 criteria don't separate them 75% of the time, so they
 aren't subspecies"  For example,
 given the physical similarity and low
 population size, red wolves do hybridize with
 coyotes.  That's already
 invoked as an
 excuse to remove protection (and protections are being
 removed anyway - political influence, not
 majority opinion or biological
 reality, is
 the driving factor).
 
 On
 Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 5:38 PM, Beach, James H. <beach at ku.edu>
 wrote:
 
 > 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
 >
 >
 _______________________________________________
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 >
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 at:
 > taxacom-owner at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
 >
 > Nurturing Nuance
 while Assaulting Ambiguity for 30 Some Years, 1987-2017.
 >
 
 
 
 -- 
 Dr. David
 Campbell
 Assistant Professor, Geology
 Department of Natural Sciences
 Box 7270
 Gardner-Webb
 University
 Boiling Springs NC 28017
 _______________________________________________
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 Nurturing Nuance while
 Assaulting Ambiguity for 30 Some Years, 1987-2017.