Taxonomy: no decline, but inertia
Article first published online: 8 FEB 2013
DOI: 10.1111/cla.12019
CLADISTICS
Abstract
The
recent literature is rich in papers sounding the alarm about taxonomy.
We analyzed data from the Zoological Record (1864–2010 and 1978–2010) to
show that we cannot speak of a decline. The number of authors
describing new species is growing, along with the number of articles
describing new species and the number of new species. We also observed a
growing interdisciplinarity and a change in the number of species
described per author, suggesting that taxonomy is experiencing new ways
of doing research. The modalities of these changes remain to be
explored. It is therefore more pertinent to speak not of a decline, i.e.
of a degradation relative to a previous situation, but of inadequacy
relative to its objective, namely the scientific inventory and
classification of the planet's living taxa.
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