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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit qwheeler.substack.com

Unless we change course, returning support to taxonomy as an independent science, we risk a future of biodiversity decimation and permanent ignorance…

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit qwheeler.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit qwheeler.substack.com

As unthinkably awful as the coming mass extinction event is, it does have a positive side. It is time to focus on what can be learned and gained, as well as the millions of species that will be lost.

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Molecular-based taxonomy is almost purely utilitarian, a non-taxonomist’s idea of taxonomy. But the ability to identify species about which almost nothing is known is a hollow, unambitious goal unworthy of the intellectual traditions, scientific accomplishments, and fantastic potential of systematic biology. Molecular data has great value when synthesized with evidence from morphology, fossils and ontogeny; but pursued alone, as exemplified by DNA barcodes and minimalist taxonomy, molecular systematics is much ado about very little.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit qwheeler.substack.com

References

Gaffney, E. 1979. An introduction to the logic of phylogeny reconstruction, pp. 19-111 in J. Cracraft & N. Eldredge, Phylogenetic Analysis and Paleontology. New York: Columbia University Press.

Nimis, P.L. 2001. A tale from bioutopia. Nature 413: 21.

Pyle, R.L. 2016. Towards a global names architecture: the future of indexing scientific names. ZooKeys 550: 261-281.

Sandall, E.L. et al. 2022. A globally integrated structure of taxonomy supporting biodiversity science and conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 38: 1143-1153.

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