Systema Naturae 250 the Linnaean Ark
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Systema Naturae 250 The Linnaean Ark Systema Naturae 250 The Linnaean Ark Edited by Andrew Polaszek Cover image of “La fontaine d’os” by surrealist Wolfgang Paalen (1907–1959) used with permission of Paalen Archiv Berlin. CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Version Date: 20140515 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4200-9502-9 (eBook - PDF) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the valid- ity of all materials or the consequences of their use. 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Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Contents Preface..............................................................................................................................................vii Editor ............................................................................................................................................. xiii Contributors .....................................................................................................................................xv Chapter 1 The Major Historical Trends of Biodiversity Studies ..................................................1 Edward O. Wilson Chapter 2 Linnaeus: A Passion for Order .....................................................................................5 David Quammen Chapter 3 Daniel Rolander: The Invisible Naturalist ................................................................. 11 James Dobreff Chapter 4 Taxonomy and the Survival of Threatened Animal Species: A Matter of Life and Death ...................................................................................................................29 Gordon McGregor Reid Chapter 5 Engineering a Linnaean Ark of Knowledge for a Deluge of Species ........................ 53 Quentin D. Wheeler Chapter 6 Historical Name-Bearing Types in Marine Molluscs: An Impediment to Biodiversity Studies? ..................................................................................................63 Philippe Bouchet and Ellen E. Strong Chapter 7 Flying after Linnaeus: Diptera Names since Systema Naturae (1758) ...................... 75 Neal L. Evenhuis, Thomas Pape, Adrian C. Pont, and F. Christian Thompson Chapter 8 e-Publish or Perish? ....................................................................................................83 Sandra Knapp and Debbie Wright Chapter 9 Reviving Descriptive Taxonomy after 250 Years: Promising Signs from a Mega-Journal in Taxonomy ........................................................................................95 Zhi-Qiang Zhang Chapter 10 Provisional Nomenclature: The On-Ramp to Taxonomic Names ............................ 109 David E. Schindel and Scott E. Miller v vi Contents Chapter 11 Future Taxonomy ..................................................................................................... 117 David J. Patterson Chapter 12 The Encyclopedia of Life: A New Digital Resource for Taxonomy ....................... 127 James Hanken Chapter 13 Future Taxonomy Today: New Tools Applied to Accelerate the Taxonomic Process ...................................................................................................................... 137 Norman F. Johnson Chapter 14 The All Genera Index: Strategies for Managing the BIG Index of All Scientific Names ....................................................................................................................... 149 David Remsen Chapter 15 Linnaeus–Sherborn–ZooBank ................................................................................. 163 Andrew Polaszek and Ellinor Michel Chapter 16 ZooBank: Reviewing the First Year and Preparing for the Next 250 ...................... 173 Richard L. Pyle and Ellinor Michel Chapter 17 Celebrating 250 Dynamic Years of Nomenclatural Debates ................................... 185 Benoît Dayrat Chapter 18 250 Years of Swedish Taxonomy ............................................................................. 241 Fredrik Ronquist Appendix 1 Concordance of Linnaeus’s Names for Rolander’s Insects ...................................... 253 Appendix 2 A Partial List of Rolander’s Insects in De Geer’s Original Drawings .....................265 Index ..............................................................................................................................................267 Preface The opportunity to prepare to celebrate a quarter millennium of the scientific naming of animals coincided with my position as Executive Secretary of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) from January 2003 to December 2007. For those entirely unfamiliar with the role, or even the existence of ICZN, it may be helpful to briefly put in context the Systema Naturae 250 event that took place in Paris in August 2008, and this resulting collection of essays. ICZN, the Commission, was formally established in 1895, having evolved from several previous organizations or associations that had long-term stability of organismal nomenclature as their mission. ICZN’s greatest achievement is the adoption, by the majority of zoological taxonomists, of its series of codes of zoological nomenclature from 1905 to 1999 and beyond. Regulating the way the scientific names of animals are formed, published, and used directly influences diverse areas of human activity, but primarily taxonomy, and consequently those fields in which taxonomy is important. Zoological nomenclature and its rules therefore provide either direct or less direct support for such fields as conservation, biological control, biodiversity studies, quarantine regulations, and the importation of animal products from agriculture and fisheries, to animal products controlled or banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Despite this pivotal role, the Code of Zoological Nomenclature should not overly influence activity in these fields, any more than the highway code should dictate progress in vehicle design or advances in transportation. Binominal nomenclature for the scientific names of animals is deemed to have started on January 1, 1758, with the 10th edition of Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae. Other central principles of animal nomenclature such as the principle of priority and that of typification came later, and owe little to Linnaeus. The continuum in the history of natural history, and organismal nomenclature in particu- lar, extends before Linnaeus to John Ray and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, among others, but the fact that modern zoological nomenclature begins officially with the 1758 edition ofSystema Naturae ties animal nomenclature inseparably to Linnaeus. For this reason, we in ICZN saw 2008—250 years later—as a perfect opportunity to celebrate the scientific naming of animals. Organismal nomenclature and its associated rules are viewed by many as dull, dry, outside the realm of science, and less and less relevant to modern methods in zootaxonomy. This idea seems to be based largely on a widespread misconception of the purposes of both the Code and ICZN as somehow aiming to restrict activity in zoological taxonomy by imposing authoritarian and arbi- trary rules and decisions. In fact, the Code has been virtually universally adopted and followed by zoologists since 1905, testimony to the willingness of most zoological taxonomists to adopt, share, and conform to this universal set of regulations. Far from being authoritarian and imposing, the zoological Code, as with the highway code mentioned above, is an excellent example of a set of regulations, formulated after more than a century of open debate, that provides essential guidance for its users. If there are problems with the Code—and there are many—these stem from it being too permissive. With each zoological code, and the debates