[Taxacom] Global counts of accepted genera

[Tony Rees]

Also noting that Reptilia has quite a high fossil component - 48.9% (not
including "uncertain" names), as compared with around 21% across all
groups. If the "uncertain" names are included, the percentage may well be
higher.

- Tony

On Thu, 2 Apr 2020 at 13:45, Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Peter, thanks for your comment...
>
> Presently IRMNG has 3,973 genus names in Reptilia (NB without Aves) listed
> as "accepted", both extant and fossil, plus a further 3,486 listed as
> "uncertain" (not yet researched). This gives a range for eventual
> "accepted" of between 3,973 (no "uncertain" names accepted) and 7,459 (all
> "uncertain" names accepted), mean value 5,716. This is the figure we quote
> in the paper, with an uncertainty range +/- 1,743 (half of the "uncertain"
> names). One take on your comment is that a larger percentage than half of
> the "uncertain" names may turn out to be unaccepted (synonyms,
> misspellings. etc.) but that cannot be ascertained without additional
> research... The data (full set of names and associated statuses) are
> provided if anyone would like to look into this, i.e. refine the estimate
> further. From experience with other groups the "uncertain" names often do
> split around 50:50 between accepted names and synonyms, but for Reptilia
> that may not be the case. I (or anyone) can use the IRMNG "advanced search"
> interface to see how many of the "uncertain" names are presently listed as
> fossil; that might illuminate the issue further... I will do this in a
> little while and report back, if you like.
>
> Regards - Tony
>
> Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
> https://about.me/TonyRees
>
>
> On Thu, 2 Apr 2020 at 13:00, Peter Uetz via Taxacom <
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Rees et al. come up with a mean estimate of 5,716 reptilian genera
>> (including birds),
>> which is a 1.65-fold overestimate of the 3459 reptilian genera in Avibase
>> and the Reptile Database (2265 bird + 1194 reptile genera).
>>
>> These two groups are a well-studied sample (about 11,000 species each)
>> with a third of all vertebrates,
>> hence I would conclude that Tony’s estimate is clearly quite a bit over
>> the actual number
>> (even when considering his estimate of ~21% of genus names being fossil).
>>
>> Just saying …
>>
>>
>>
>> >> ----- Original Message -----
>> >> From: "Tony Rees via Taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu <mailto:
>> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
>> >> To: "taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu <mailto:
>> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>; "Tony Rees"
>> >> <tonyrees49 at gmail.com <mailto:tonyrees49 at gmail.com>>
>> >> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 4:40 AM
>> >> Subject: [Taxacom] Global counts of accepted genera
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>> Dear Taxacomers,
>> >>>
>> >>> Have you ever wondered how many genus names for accepted taxa have
>> been
>> >>> published, broken down by taxonomic group? and/or "all names",
>> synonyms
>> >>> (sensu lato) included (together with the actual lists of names as a
>> >>> downloadable file) - well, the following newly published paper in the
>> >>> journal "Megataxa" goes some way to answering these questions:
>> >>>
>> >>> Rees et al., 2020: "All genera of the world: an overview and estimates
>> >>> based on the March 2020 release of the Interim Register of Marine and
>> >>> Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG)"
>> >>> https://www.mapress.com/j/mt/article/view/megataxa.1.2.3 <
>> https://www.mapress.com/j/mt/article/view/megataxa.1.2.3>
>> >>>
>> >>> In case this is of interest, in the present "interesting" times...
>> >>>
>> >>> Regards to all - Tony
>> >>> Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
>> >>> https://about.me/TonyRees
>>
>>
>> ————————————————————————————————————
>> Peter Uetz
>> Center for Biological Data Science (CeBiDaS)
>> (formerly Center for the Study of Biological Complexity)
>> Virginia Commonwealth University
>> Richmond, VA 23284
>> USA
>>
>> Reptile Database (http://www.reptile-database.org <
>> http://www.reptile-database.org/>)
>> http://people.vcu.edu/~uetz/ <http://people.vcu.edu/~uetz/>
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>