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Linné 300 years biodiversity - (Jul/31/2007 )

Anybody knows that this year is 300th anniversary of biodiversity research (Carl von Linnè was born 1707)? As you maybe remember he invented the binomial nomenclature, and he also established conventions for the naming of living organisms and a hierarchical classification system, all until today valid (but with major changes). Most of the forum members (and meanwhile me too) are molecular/micro biologists/immunologists/ etc etc., working only in the lab, nothing to do with taxonomy, systematics or biodiversity. This is today a generally trend and the mentioned research fields are becoming more and more extinct. This is because of a biased view on science. E.g., taxonomy is called only a describing science without any experiments, the methods are outdated etc. And the researchers are assumed to be boring, fanciless ivy-tower inhabitants, counting only beetle legs or comparing the hair-colours of identically looking specimen nobody is interested in.
But things are different: Only they know what you are working on, i.e. what species it is and if this is really one or perhaps two cryptic species, if different biotypes exist and what species may be of interest and where to find and to rear it, e.g. in terms of finding new drugs and active components or to protect endangered species and environments. Or to protect production of food. Or to detect and control disease vectors. And many more fields. The methods are up-to-date, e.g., a molecuar taxonomy is developing fast.
And the researchers are not boring and fanciless, taxonomy and the naming is really amazing, full of word play and phrases and references. Here some examples (stolen from D. Yanega's homepage):

Centrifuga (a mollusc)
Hallucigenia Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian fossil)
Notnops, Taintnops, and Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (spiders; all originally placed in the genus Nops, but Platnick decided these were all distinct new genera)
Dalailama Staudinger, 1896 (moth from Tibet)
Godzillius Yager, 1986 (remipede crustacean)
Anisonchus eowynae Van Valen, 1978 (fossil mammal)
Gollum (shark)
Gollumiella Hedqvist, 1978 (eucharitid wasp)
Vagina Megerle, 1811 (clam; now synonymized)
Semen Hoffer, 1954 (encyrtid wasp)
Phallus impudicus (Stinkhorn fungus)
Cuterebra emasculator Fitch, 1856 (bot fly which consumes the host rodent's testes)
Schizogenius (carabid beetle)
Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus Dybowski, 1926 (amphipod; longest genus name at 31 characters
Nazgulia Hedqvist, 1973 (pteromalid wasp)
Chaos chaos Linnaeus, 1767 (amoeba)
Kamera lens Woodcock, 1917 (protist)
Oedipus complex (salamander; now in genus Oedipina)
Anophthalmus hitleri (blind cave beetle)
Erechthias beeblebroxi Robinson & Nelson, 1993 (tineid moth with false head; after Zaphod Beeblebrox, character from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with two heads)
Lasioglossum gattaca Danforth & Wcislo (sweat bee; named after part of its DNA base sequence, GATTACA)
Car (weevil)
Tegeticula cassandra (a yucca moth, tongue.gif )
And many many more... smile.gif

The picture gives the cover of the "Systema naturae" of Linné, himself sitting in the paradise and describing and sorting the specimen wink.gif
[attachment=3342:Systema_...ae_cover.jpg]

-hobglobin-

QUOTE (hobglobin @ Jul 31 2007, 05:51 AM)
But things are different: Only they know what you are working on, i.e. what species it is and if this is really one or perhaps two cryptic species, if different biotypes exist and what species may be of interest and where to find and to rear it, e.g. in terms of finding new drugs and active components or to protect endangered species and environments. Or to protect production of food. Or to detect and control disease vectors. And many more fields. The methods are up-to-date, e.g., a molecuar taxonomy is developing fast.
And the researchers are not boring and fanciless, taxonomy and the naming is really amazing, full of word play and phrases and references. Here some examples (stolen from D. Yanega's homepage):

Centrifuga (a mollusc)
Hallucigenia Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian fossil)
Notnops, Taintnops, and Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (spiders; all originally placed in the genus Nops, but Platnick decided these were all distinct new genera)
Dalailama Staudinger, 1896 (moth from Tibet)
Godzillius Yager, 1986 (remipede crustacean)
Anisonchus eowynae Van Valen, 1978 (fossil mammal)
Gollum (shark)
Gollumiella Hedqvist, 1978 (eucharitid wasp)
Vagina Megerle, 1811 (clam; now synonymized)
Semen Hoffer, 1954 (encyrtid wasp)
Phallus impudicus (Stinkhorn fungus)
Cuterebra emasculator Fitch, 1856 (bot fly which consumes the host rodent's testes)
Schizogenius (carabid beetle)
Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus Dybowski, 1926 (amphipod; longest genus name at 31 characters
Nazgulia Hedqvist, 1973 (pteromalid wasp)
Chaos chaos Linnaeus, 1767 (amoeba)
Kamera lens Woodcock, 1917 (protist)
Oedipus complex (salamander; now in genus Oedipina)
Anophthalmus hitleri (blind cave beetle)
Erechthias beeblebroxi Robinson & Nelson, 1993 (tineid moth with false head; after Zaphod Beeblebrox, character from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with two heads)
Lasioglossum gattaca Danforth & Wcislo (sweat bee; named after part of its DNA base sequence, GATTACA)
Car (weevil)
Tegeticula cassandra (a yucca moth, tongue.gif )
And many many more... smile.gif

The picture gives the cover of the "Systema naturae" of Linné, himself sitting in the paradise and describing and sorting the specimen wink.gif
[attachment=3342:Systema_...ae_cover.jpg]

Tegeticula cassandra...the not-so-tragic moth...I'm sure my namesake (with double s) is thrilled to be up there in your selected list which includes body parts and bodily fluids (and let's not forget the psychos tongue.gif).

Thanks for the nice post and picture.

-casandra-