[tcs-lc] Minor modifications prior TDWG ratification vote

[Richard Pyle]

Hi James,

I just re-read your message, and maybe I misunderstood your rotifer example
(at several levels). When you said "Rotifera vodka", I assumed you were
using them as Genusname speciesname, but perhaps you meant Rotifera as a
Phylum, with uncertain placement within a higher taxon (i.e., not Ciliata)?

In any case, I am also not sure whether you are saying that it would be used
to flag a taxon without reference to a parent?  For example: "I don't
believe that Rotifera is in Ciliata, but I do not know what parent it does
belong to".  If only "Rotifera" is provided, with no parent, then I do not
consider it to be "incertae sedis".  I believe it can not be of "uncertain
position" unless it is so within some parent envelope, even if that envelope
is of rank "Domain".  If only the name "Rotifera" is provided, with no
indication of a parent, then I don't see it as having the property of
"incertae sedis", because I think that property is tied to a parent-child
*relationship*, not a name or taxon itself.  Whether the data provider
didn't know what parent the taxon should be classified under, or simply
failed to provide it, seems to make no difference for the interpretation of
the data.  If the data provider wants to explicitly convey "incertae sedis",
and doesn't even know what Domain it belongs within, then the parent could
be given as the "Superdomain" of "Life".

Aloha,
Rich