[Taxacom] unflagged classification change question

[Michael A. Ivie]

People get the idea somehow that there is a single correct 
classification and that the last published  usage is "in force." In 
fact, there are many cases where one person uses a broad species concept 
with a synonym included, another  considers the species to have multiple 
subspecies one of which is that synonym, and a third considers there to 
be two species.  These can all publish simultaneously, and be fully 
understood if they simply clarify their usage.  It is not that the last 
person to publish is the one that is "official," there is no 
"official."  And, you don't have to discuss it every time, just list the 
name you use, and a synonymical table for those names used by others 
that you consider the same.  No real discussion is needed if this is 
simply a parallel classification situation.  HOWEVER, very often people 
use names from older pubs not knowing they have been changed. 
Particularly common with ecologists, conservationists and economic 
practitioners.  That is just a mistake, not a taxonomic change, and just 
cite the usage without a lot of fanfare.

Mike


On 6/11/2018 12:58 PM, John Grehan wrote:
> I'd go for B. Not that I am necessarily an authority on anything :)
>
> John Grehan
>
> On Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 2:52 PM, Derek Sikes <dssikes at alaska.edu> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> For those of you who keep track of one or more taxonomic classifications on
>> which you are an authority...
>>
>> I'd like to know how you'd react to the following (all too-realistic)
>> hypothetical scenario:
>>
>> *You find a publication by Smith in which a species name that you feel had
>> been justifiably made a junior synonym some years earlier, was treated as a
>> valid species with no explanation for the change. *
>>
>> In the next publication you produce on the group do you:
>>
>> A) list it as a valid species citing Smith's publication
>>
>> B) re-synonymize it, cite Smith, and explain that there was no evidence
>> offered by Smith for the change
>>
>> C) ignore (don't cite) Smith and list it as a junior synonym
>>
>> D) something else? (& for this hypothetical, imagine Smith recently died)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Derek
>>
>> --
>>
>> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>> Derek S. Sikes, Curator of Insects
>> Associate Professor of Entomology
>> University of Alaska Museum
>> 1962 Yukon Drive
>> Fairbanks, AK   99775-6960
>>
>> dssikes at alaska.edu
>>
>> phone: 907-474-6278
>> FAX: 907-474-5469
>>
>> University of Alaska Museum  -  search 400,276 digitized arthropod records
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>> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
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> Nurturing Nuance while Assaulting Ambiguity for 31 Some Years, 1987-2018.

-- 
__________________________________________________

Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

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