[Taxacom] Taxonomy in Europe in the 21st century

[Bob Mesibov]

They have indeed, Jim. Now taxonomists are saying it themselves:

"We're not needed anymore. Our backgrounds in nomenclature, anatomy,
physiology, embryology, ecology, evolution and phylogenetic studies, not
to mention our detailed knowledge of particular taxonomic groups, are
admirable of course, but that's all just academic. For most of the
'service' tasks that used to be done by taxonomists, all you need now is
a sequencer and a database of DNA barcodes.

"Of course, we're also traditionalists and after you accept this
techno-romance and give us lots of money, we'll use a little of it to
continue training a declining number of specialists. These people will
be backup, to deal with the occasional messy biodiversity issue that
can't be resolved by sequencing.

"The old-fashioned lot will also discover and document new forms of life
in their spare time - at a rate less than the extinction rate,
unfortunately, but we'll make sure that all the new forms have their
barcodes determined and databased as a first priority. Whatever else
happens, we need to have the raw data for desktop work at tweaking and
extending the Tree of Life. Species may go extinct, but we want to know
where they fitted in when they were still around, if nothing else."
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html
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