[tcs-lc] Is nomenclatural type assingment taxonomic/concept based

Nico Franz franz at nceas.ucsb.edu
Mon Mar 7 11:16:29 PST 2005


Hi Gregor:

   An act of lectotypification, for example, requires that someone makes 
a judgment about the identity of the original type specimen /in relation 
to/ the one that is then assigned lectotype status. I thought this kind 
of comparative study of specimens might have a different quality than 
pure literature assessments (e.g. nomen nudum). Whenever there are 
judgments involving at least one name and two or more specimens I 
understand these assessments to be "subjective" in the ICZN sense. And 
"subjective" suggests that a concept approach is justified.

   My main point was that it is not trivial to go through all the terms 
and acts prescribed by the Codes and make such objective/subjective 
distinctions. A first personal attempt to do this is attached as a 
spreadsheet.

   I was meaning to say that, practicality issues aside (see the 
Jessie-Rich-Sally-Roger-Gregor etc. threads), there are valid 
first-principle arguments for looking at the Codes as prescribing 
"Concepts Light" in numerous cases. In my view the "new typification 
acts" fall into this category. Quoting ICZN (p. 83): "Recommendation 
74A. Agreement with previous restriction. In designating a lectotype, in 
order to preserve stability of nomenclature an author should act 
consistently with, and in any event should give great weight to, 
previously accepted taxonomic restrictions of the application of the name."

   If it turns out that some "Code-prescribed acts" are open to (or even 
require) such a conceptual reading, how do we treat them in the TCS-LC 
context?

Best,

Nico

Gregor Hagedorn wrote:

>I cannot see whether someone else has responded to Nicos question of types 
>(argument for wiki... :-) )
>
>Nico writes:
>
>"I have a few questions. Do this Objective/Subjective distinction help us? Is 
>it feasible and desirable to have one schema handle some name relationships 
>(homotypic ones) that are prescribed in the Codes but not others (heterotypic 
>situations)? And what about the long list of [para/iso/ex/plasto/epi/lecto/...] 
>typifications which clearly reflect taxonomic judgment?"
>
>Gregor: Can you elaborate that? I think I disagree. Like almost any 
>nomenclatural statement, some judgement (knowledge of true publication dates, 
>rules of nomenclature and assessement whether these are followed is involved. I 
>believe that assessing the kind of type that a specimen is in relation to a 
>nomenclatural name falls into the same category. This category in my think is 
>very different from heterotypic synonmyization based on the opinions about the 
>extent of a taxon circumscription concept.
>
>Gregor----------------------------------------------------------
>Gregor Hagedorn (G.Hagedorn at bba.de)
>Institute for Plant Virology, Microbiology, and Biosafety
>Federal Research Center for Agriculture and Forestry (BBA)
>Königin-Luise-Str. 19           Tel: +49-30-8304-2220
>14195 Berlin, Germany           Fax: +49-30-8304-2203
>
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>
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