[Taxacom] New paper on fungal higher classification

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Tony,

        I would recommend following the classification of Ruggiero et al., 2015 ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418965/ ) , not only in the ranks used, but also in restricting "Fungi" (to what is probably better called Eumycota).  They say: "Here we take the view that the best demarcation between Protozoa and Fungi lies immediately before the origin of the chitinous wall around vegetative fungal cells and associated loss of phagotrophy [33<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418965/#pone.0119248.ref033>]. We therefore include microsporidia and rozellids in Protozoa (vegetatively wall-less, typically phagotrophs) not Fungi (vegetatively walled osmotrophs).


       I believe that (restricting Fungi to Eumycota) is what databases like EOL are doing, although I would also encourage them use the name Eumycota, rather than Fungi (which has had a horrible history of polyphyletic dumping).   Personally, I see the inflationary splitting in this 2018 paper as taxonomic noise which probably does more harm than good.  But perhaps there is something of value in there somewhere buried in all the inflationary noise.


       Furthermore, I would add that expanding classifications of Fungi/Eumycota beyond the more traditional bounds would likely result in clashes (and confusion) between the Zoological and Botanical codes.  Would probably be best to nip such problems in the bud.

                     --------------Ken

________________________________
From: Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2018 6:45 PM
To: Kenneth Kinman
Cc: taxacom
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New paper on fungal higher classification

So, is there anything in it that may stand the test of time/eventual uptake, do you (or perhaps others) think?

- Tony


On 20 May 2018 at 10:32, Kenneth Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com<mailto:kinman at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Tony,

         This classification seems to be mostly just raising a lot of known taxa to higher taxonomic levels, and therefore creating a lot of new names.  Especially their new phyla Nuclearida and Fonticulida, created a long time ago as Orders which are grouped together within a Class Cristidiscoidea (see Ruggiero et al.'s 2015 Higher Classification of Organisms at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418965/ ).

         So I guess they think that raising those to phylum status justifies raising Cristidiscoidea to Kingdom level.  But what is even worse is that instead of calling it Cristidiscoidea or some version of that name, they call it Kingdom Nucleariae (based on a genus name, instead of being descriptive).  Just what we don't need--- more Kingdoms in an inflationary classification.

                   -------------Ken

________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>> on behalf of Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com<mailto:tonyrees49 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 5:02 PM
To: taxacom
Subject: [Taxacom] New paper on fungal higher classification

For those interested, the following paper crossed my (virtual) desk this
morning:

Tedersoo, L., Sánchez-Ramírez, S., Kõljalg, U. et al., 2018. High-level
classification of the Fungi and a tool for evolutionary ecological
analyses. Fungal Diversity (2018 online (?vol.90)): 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-018-0401-0  (online pubication date 16 May
2018)

It contains quite a lot of high level reorganisation of fungal
classification, including a new kingdom, Nucleariae, for 2 new
phyla, Nuclearida and Fonticulida. I await the views of other fungal
persons on the list (some of whom no doubt knew this work prior to
publication) for more expert comments.

Regards to all - Tony

Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
https://about.me/TonyRees
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