Is it time to describe new species without diagnoses?

AutorInnen:

Dirk Ahrens, Shane T. Ahyong, Alberto Ballerio, Maxwell v. L. Barclay, Jonas Eberle, Marianne Espeland, Bernhard A. Huber, Ximo Mengual, Thaynara l. Pacheco, Ralph S. Peters, Björn Rulik, Fernando Vaz-De-Mello, Thomas Wesener & Frank-Thorsten Krell

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Vollständiger Titel:

Is it time to describe new species without diagnoses? — A comment on Sharkey et al. (2021)

ZFMK-Autorinnen / ZFMK-Autoren:

Dr. Dirk Ahrens, Dr. Marianne Espeland, Dr. Bernhard A. Huber, Dr. Ximo Mengual, Dr. Ralph S. Peters, Björn Rulik, Dr. Thomas Wesener

Org. Einordnung:

Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Arachnida, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Abteilung Arthropoda, Myriapoda

Publiziert in:

Zootaxa

Publikationstyp:

Zeitschriftenaufsatz

DOI Name:

10.11646/zootaxa.5027.2.1.

Keywords:

Taxonomy, species delimitation, COI barcoding, nomenclature rules

Bibliographische Angaben:

Ahrens, D. ., Ahyong, S. T. ., Ballerio, A. ., Barclay, M. V. L. ., Eberle, J. ., Espeland, M. ., Huber, B. A. ., Mengual, X. ., Pacheco, T. L. ., Peters, R. S. ., Rulik, B. ., Vaz-De-Mello, F. ., Wesener, T. . & Krell, F.-T. . (2021) “Is it time to describe new species without diagnoses?—A comment on Sharkey et al. (2021)”, Zootaxa 5027(2): 151–159. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5027.2.1.

Abstract:

New methods in taxonomy and systematics can influence the overall practice of formally naming and describing biodiversity. DNA barcoding has been controversial since its emergence, but now, large scale species descriptions exclusively based on barcodes have created what can be called a ‘new quality of performance’. Its limitations are discussed from different perspectives: nomenclature, general pragmatism, and problems of DNA-based species delimitation in the light of the central aim of achieving a robust and stable nomenclature of organisms, essential for all applications of biodiversity research. This issue needs to be addressed to prevent restraining the progress of taxonomy and its ability to contribute to modern science.