Re: "A Worrying Systematic Decline" by Lee

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@home.com>]

At 09:09 PM 25/09/00 -0700, Jaime A. Headden wrote:
>   In the latest issue of _Trends in Ecology and
> Evolution_, Michael Lee takes issue with several
> annoying popularizations in paleontology, including
> selling off of rights to name taxa for funding,
> traditional morphological taxonomy being supplanted by
> molecular taxonomy (at least in organisms where you
> can choose) including recent increases in new journals
> focusing on molecules outweighing those of
> morphology....

Might I suggest, without having read the paper, that Lee may be protesting 
a bit too much?  On the subject of molecular taxonomy I have my own doubts, 
mostly because it seems so difficult to confirm or test the results (though 
that may well be my ignorance talking), but is Lee at all motivated by the 
fact that two different molecular studies have directly contradicted his 
view that turtles are derived from pareiasaurs?  (Mind you, after a talk 
last week with Dr Robert Reisz on this point I came away with the distinct 
possibility that both Lee and the molecular types may be wrong).

On the subject of selling rights to names, I suggest that this is part of a 
long tradition of honouring patrons; I can think of plenty of examples of 
animals named after royalty or aristocrats in the last century whose only 
claim to the distinction probably was that they forked out cash to support 
the researcher, or were considered good touches.  Actually, for living 
animals this sort of thing can be highly beneficial.  A recently-discovered 
species of vireo (a small bird from Colombia), Vireo masteri, was named for 
a gentleman who ponied up a considerable sum to Birdlife International to 
be used directly to support conservation of the species' habitat.  If 
naming an animal after a donor can help ensure its conservation, I'm all 
for it.


--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
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