Taxacom: replacing un-sequenceable types (was Re: Minimalist revision of Mesochorus)

[Peter Uetz]

In the long run, AI will be able to take into account environmental factors, age, etc.
Hence, it will be able to predict species too, including (potential) gene flow etc.
It’s admittedly everyone’s guess when this will happen (but probably sooner than many think).

And yes, nature guides will be replaced by AI too, even without DNA.
It’s happening already (iNaturalist, Seek, etc.)

You will need both DNA and images to predict phenotypes and species, of course.



> On Sep 1, 2023, at 10:44 AM, Lücking, Robert <R.Luecking at bo.berlin> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> do not forget that taxonomy has a lot of dimensions going far beyond science. I don't think you can sell DNA-only-based taxonomy to non-scientists, policy makers etc. Nature guides continue to be a multi-billion dollar business and I do honestly not imagine these to feature images of genome sequences in the future. So while it is necessary to support taxon concepts with molecular data, the morphological portion of taxonomy is equally required. Or can any of you imagine a tour where you, as an expert, tell people: "Unfortunately I cannot identify this critter unless I have a genome sequence..."
> 
> We already have this problem: students start "taxonomy" through lab work but have never seen the critters in situ, leading to statements such as: "Oh, that's what I have been sequencing... I had no idea...".
> 
> Also: many species are polymorphic, plus there are external influences, plus ontogeny and age, meaning the phenotype cannot be predicted from the genotype alone, not even with AI.
> 
> Expert taxonomists can still identify (most of) their species and some have predicted what we now see with molecular data many decades ago based on morphology and anatomy and other data alone. The art of taxonomy is not, and is not going to be, to predict phenotype from genotype, but continues to be to predict species from phenotype, taking into account all available information.
> 
> Robert
> 



————————————————————————————————————
Peter Uetz
Center for Biological Data Science
(formerly Center for the Study of Biological Complexity)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA 23284
USA

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