Nomenclature for the Future: The power and challenges for stable and sensible scientific names for animals-v2
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This document discusses the future of scientific naming for animals and the challenges involved. It notes that scientific names serve as links between past and current knowledge about a species. While millions of animal species are estimated to exist, only a small fraction have been named so far. The document advocates for registering all new and existing scientific names in ZooBank to create a global standardized nomenclature system and infrastructure. This would help link names to taxonomic and bibliographic data across different databases for improved information sharing and analysis of biodiversity.
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Nomenclature for the Future: The power and challenges for stable and sensible scientific names for animals-v2
- 1. Nomenclature for the Future: The power and challenges for stable and sensible scientific names for animals Ellinor Michel1,2,3 Richard Pyle1,3,4 Daphne Fautin1,3,5 David Patterson1,3,6 Jon Todd2,3 11 Int’l Commission on Zoological NomenclatureInt’l Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 22 The Natural History Museum, London UKThe Natural History Museum, London UK 33 Int’l Committee on BionomenclatureInt’l Committee on Bionomenclature 44 Bishop Museum, HI, USABishop Museum, HI, USA 55 University of Kansas, USAUniversity of Kansas, USA 66 Arizona State Univ, AZ, USAArizona State Univ, AZ, USA
- 2. All accumulated information of a species is tied to a scientific name, a name that serves as a link between what has been learned in the past and what we today add to the body of knowledge. - Grimaldi & Engel, 2005 Names and the information revolution Note: they don’t say THE scientific name (i.e., singular)
- 3. Equivalent of 318 volumes of Systema Naturae Estimated 2-6 names for every valid (=currently considered definable and ‘real’) species 4,398 Species
- 4. Nomenclature Taxonomy Type specimen Is the objective physical standard for a name that anchors the name.
- 5. ✔ ICZN types for the Future ✔ ? ✗ ?
- 6. ✔ ICZN types for the Future ✔ ? ✗ ?
- 7. ✔ Types for the Future ? ✗
- 8. Scientific concept of biodiversity Name (Scientific, common, provisional or open) Type specimen (objective standard) Data & Bibliography
- 9. Stability, transparency and testability Name (Scientific, common, provisional or open) Type specimen (objective standard) Data & Bibliography
- 10. Archives for Scientific concepts of biodiversity Name (Scientific, common, provisional or open) Type specimen (objective standard) Data & Bibliography Stable archives needed Natural History Collections Libraries Publications Data sources
- 13. Registration in ZooBank • Now required for e-only publications • Has general community support
- 14. E-only publication amendment to ICZN Code published 4 Sept ZooBank improved version released, meeting requirements of the Amendment From zoobank.org/statistics
- 15. • Now required for e-only publications • Has general community support • Registration of all names and nomenclatural acts is strongly encouraged and being rapidly implemented • Next Step: ALL names (historical and future) registered and cross-linked! Registration in ZooBank
- 16. A name = ‘computer’ readable code that links information
- 17. A5B835CF-BB3A-4CC9-BCBD-38BA253C8374 Easy for a computer; Hard for a human Easy for a human; Hard for a computer “Archaeopteryx”
- 21. ToL GenBank Hymenoptera Name Server BDWB CalPhotos A Global Names ArchitectureA Global Names Architecture A5B835CF-BB3A-4CC9-BCBD-38BA253C8374
- 22. Big Data Infrastructure Data re-use Data generation Data pool Patterson, BioSyst.EU Keynote
- 23. Zoological Names in the Future • Global mandatory registration for all new names – next edition of the Code? • Ultimate Goal: Registered = Available (Pyle & Michel, 2008; Minelli, 2013)
- 24. Logistics of populating ZooBank • 16,000-20,000 new animal species described16,000-20,000 new animal species described each yeareach year • 1.9 million described extant species1.9 million described extant species • 5-50 million estimated total extant species (R.5-50 million estimated total extant species (R. May, E.O. Wilson, T. Erwin)May, E.O. Wilson, T. Erwin) • Fossil species multiply this by some factorFossil species multiply this by some factor Strategic approaches requiredStrategic approaches required Publishers highly supportive and beginningPublishers highly supportive and beginning to require ZooBank registrationto require ZooBank registration Authors & databases contributing nowAuthors & databases contributing now
- 25. Logistics of populating ZooBank Building tools to streamline the capture of prospective content •Publishers pipelines with XML tools •Requested and required ZooBank registration by authors of new papers •(all e-only publications must be registered to be available) Populating with retrospective content •Major sources – Sherborn, Hymenoptera Names Server, Hexacorallians of the World, etc. •Committed individuals – Rod Bray, Takafumi Nakano •Lists of Available Names (LANs)
- 26. ZooBank links with the Biodiversity Heritage Library
- 30. LANs – Lists of Available Names • Critical assembly of large numbers of names • Community debate • Commission authoritative ruling Article 79 - An international body of zoologists… in consultation with the Commission may propose that the Commission adopt for a major taxonomic field (or related fields) a Part of the List of Available Names in Zoology. The Commission will consider the proposal and may adopt the Part subject to the proposing body and the Commission meeting the requirements of this Article.
- 31. 1)Ensures a candidate Part of the LAN is thoroughly vetted 2)Pares away dubious names • like the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names that took effect on 1 January 1980 – taxonomically recognizable as well as nomenclaturally available 3) Prevents “nomenclatural archeology” • long-forgotten names displacing accepted names Creates a definitive nomenclatural inventory (a new zero point) for a portion of the taxonomic spectrum Source of names for ZooBank LANs – Lists of Available Names
- 32. Two Possibilities to document every available name within the scope of the Part to pare the inventory of names within the scope of the Part STRICTLY NOMENCLATURAL TAXONOMIC COMPONENT
- 34. • Names are the anchor and link for biodiversity information exchange • Types provide stability and meaning for taxon names • An stable archive of names is a critical taxonomic infrastructure • ZooBank aims to be the authoritative source for scientific names of animals and is growing rapidly • The future of nomenclature includes a harmonization of biological codes, especially through technical tools such as ZooBank and the Global Names Architecture Conclusions
- 35. Natural History Museum, London Bishop Museum, Hawaii ITCN/ITZN supporting institutions (MNHN (France), Senckenberg (Germany), Naturalis, RBINS (Belgium), AAZN (USA)) The Commissioners & Trustees of ICZN / ITZN ICB – International Committee on Bionomenclature Everyone pitching in on building ZooBank content THANKS
- 36. Let’sdiscuss!
Editor's Notes
- In 1758 it was feasible to create a catalog of life using ink on paper. <click> Today, it would require the equivalent of nearly 264 volumes of Systema Naturae to achieve the same thing. Or, you could fit the whole thing on a tiny memory card.
- It’s no surprise that the biodiversity community is going digital. <click> Many Natural History Museums are databasing their collections. <click> Historical literature is being digitized by the Biodiversity Heritage Library and others… <click> … and many modern scientific journals are embracing the digital age directly. <click> Authoritative Nomenclators have been built, <click> and a variety of groups are working to distill the taxonomic concepts from the sea of names. <click> Databases of observation records are growing at a fast rate, <click> as are genomic databases. <click> The internet has made feasible the cheap and easy dissemination of multimedia files related to biodiversity. <click> And, of course there is biodiversity content spread across the billions of web pages indexed by Google. <click> To make sense of it all, several organizations serve as aggregators of all this diverse content. And this is just a small sample of icons that could fit on a slide. This massive effort to digitize biodiversity information is a great step in the right direction. But it is only one step. We must now focus our energies on integrating all of this information in a coordinated, cohesive way. <click> The critical informatic piece to this puzzle is Taxonomy, because almost all of these data providers link their content to taxon names one way or another.
- It’s no surprise that the biodiversity community is going digital. <click> Many Natural History Museums are databasing their collections. <click> Historical literature is being digitized by the Biodiversity Heritage Library and others… <click> … and many modern scientific journals are embracing the digital age directly. <click> Authoritative Nomenclators have been built, <click> and a variety of groups are working to distill the taxonomic concepts from the sea of names. <click> Databases of observation records are growing at a fast rate, <click> as are genomic databases. <click> The internet has made feasible the cheap and easy dissemination of multimedia files related to biodiversity. <click> And, of course there is biodiversity content spread across the billions of web pages indexed by Google. <click> To make sense of it all, several organizations serve as aggregators of all this diverse content. And this is just a small sample of icons that could fit on a slide. This massive effort to digitize biodiversity information is a great step in the right direction. But it is only one step. We must now focus our energies on integrating all of this information in a coordinated, cohesive way. <click> The critical informatic piece to this puzzle is Taxonomy, because almost all of these data providers link their content to taxon names one way or another.
- To overcome these and other problems, we need to build a Global Names Architecture. The first and perhaps most critical component to integrating all of this biodiversity information is the broader adoption of Globally Unique Identifiers, or GUIDs. <click> If you already know about GUIDs, then the question of whether we should use LSIDs or DOIs or Handles, or PURLs or UUIDs is of secondary importance to their more general implementation. If you don’t already know about GUIDs, then learn about them, or trust your IT staff when they say then need support to implement them. Also, always keep in mind that they are intended for use by computers, not humans, so don’t worry about how ugly they may appear. But while GUIDs make things a lot easier, they do not, by themselves, solve the problem of linking the world’s biodiversity information.
- GUIDs are globally unidque identifiers, readable only to computers The two major components of the Global Names Architecture currently under development are the Global Names Index, or “GNI”… <click> And the Global Names Usage Bank, or “GNUB”. <click> The GNI is optimized to manage information from content providers that treat names as text-string attributes of other data objects. For example, it provides a species-level index of content within data bases and facilitates linking of disparate data sources through species names. <click> The GNUB is designed to manage taxon names and their usages as curated data objects in and of themselves. These components will not only help build links among their own contributing data providers, but also to bridge the gap between them. <click> Services will allow the GNI to serve as a “gateway” into the GNUB. And, of course, the GNUB will serve as a source of validated taxon name strings back to GNI. The Global Names Architecture is currently in development with support from GBIF, the Encyclopedia of Life, and National Biological Information Infrastructure. A prototype of GNI is already available at globalnames.org, and the GNUB is currently being populated with content from Index Fungorum and ZooBank, the latter of which will include content from many of these taxon-specific nomenclators. <click> Ultimately, all of these content providers will be plugged into the Global Names Architecture, and the biodiversity data content will start to flow.
- The good news is that Taxonomic names represent one of the greatest and long-lasting examples of true international cooperation in all of science, if not all of human history. <click> This is a result of the various Codes of Scientific Nomenclature; two of which have been in place for more than a century, and apply to all names going back to Linnaeus. In a sense, the Codes of Nomenclature represent our saving grace for organizing biodiversity information. Without their existence, longevity, and near-universal adoption, the prospects for integrating biodiversity information would be orders of magnitude more difficult today. Unfortunately, as important as these Codes of nomenclature have been and continue to be, there are still some issues to overcome.