Taxacom: Removals of offending scientific names

Thu Jun 22 05:17:56 CDT 2023

Agreed. Strong recommendations to that effect in the Code(s), though not binding, would give reviewers and editors a basis for asking authors of such proposed eponyms to justify or reconsider their choices.
Cheers,
Wolfgang
--
Wolfgang Wüster
Professor in Zoology (Herpetology)
Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Bangor (MEEB)
School of Natural Sciences
Bangor University

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom
Sent: 22 June 2023 11:13
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu; Mike Sadka <mike.sadka at nhm.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Removals of offending scientific names

 I do think that the current publicity seeking trend towards naming species after celebrities would be best halted. Patronyms should be relevant to the species. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time until one of today's celebrities becomes tomorrow's Jimmy Savile (U.K.) or Jeffrey Epstein (U.S.), which would be an embarrassment for taxonomy. We can perhaps defend patronyms to disgraced people if they were relevant to the taxon at the time of naming. I don't believe in cancelling the good things done by a person gone bad (though others would disagree). It is however hard to defend a patronym to a disgraced person who was never even relevant to the taxon!
Stephen
    On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 09:56:45 pm NZST, Mike Sadka via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

 > In past discussions of this I have said I have no issue if we as a community draw a line in the sand and say no more patronyms for example, but it cannot be retroactive. Making it retroactive interferes with the primary aim of the code which is stability.

I have seen lots of debate on this, and am barely qualified to comment, but I have rarely seen anyone suggest that the best way to deal with this and defuse some of the criticism would be to explicitly accept that there have been problems in the past but promise to do something about them going forward.  For example, using more local organism names as epithets and honouring a wider range of individuals with patronyms.

It might be that many current detractors would accept this as a reasonable compromise.

And it might allow a more constructive conversation.  People with axes to grind (however legitimately) often react against other viewpoints - sometimes the best way to defuse that is to agree and enter a conversation to identify a solution that works for all (or at least most).
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