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About this book
Initiatives reinventing taxonomy for the Internet generation are leading to a dramatic resurgence in this once declining discipline. Looking at the effort of several groups, especially the Global Bioinformation Diversity Facility, to catalog the world's biodiversity and make it accessible via databases, this work discusses the future of descriptive taxonomy.
The book covers such technology as DNA barcoding and its applications, computer-assisted species identification, digital morphology, and E-typification. It also provides insight into effective ways of organizing taxonomic information, and discusses what benefits can be leveraged from a rapid growth of taxonomic knowledge.
Contents
Introductory: Towards the New Taxonomy, Q.D. Wheeler Networks and Their Role in e-Taxonomy, M.J. Scoble Taxonomy as a Team Sport, S. Knapp Planetary Biodiversity Inventories as Models for the New Taxonomy, L.M. Page On the Use of Taxonomic Concepts in Support of Biodiversity Research and Taxonomy, N. Franz, R. K. Peet, and A.S. Weakley International Infrastructure for Enabling the New Taxonomy: The Role of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), L. Speers and J.L. Edwards DNA Sequences in Taxonomy: Opportunities and Challenges, R. Meier Animal Names for All: ICZN, ZooBank and the New Taxonomy, A. Polaszek, R. Pyle, and D. Yanega Understanding Morphology in Systematic Contexts: Three- Dimensional Specimen Ordination and Recognition, N. MacLeod Taxonomic Shock and Awe, Q.D. Wheeler Index
Customer Reviews
Edited By: Quentin D Wheeler
237 pages, diagrams
! this volume charts the efforts of several international groups to address the problems faced by contemporary taxonomists. In 10 essays covering techniques such as DNA barcoding, computer-aided identification, digital morphology, and E-typification, the book provides what the back cover describes as 'an unapologetic look at morphology and descriptive taxonomy ... [that] frames one of the most constructive responses to the biodiversity crisis.' This is a bold claim. But perhaps we should expect nothing less from the editor, who, amongst other things, is director of Arizona State University's International Institute for Species Exploration! . --Vincent S. Smith, Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, London, in Systematic Biology, Vol. 57