Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark
Features
- Documents the milestone of a quarter millennium in zootaxonomic research
- Provides not only a scientific context but also the historical and cultural contexts
- Brings together key scientists in the field of zootaxonomic informatics
- Includes reviews and syntheses from the actual innovators of taxonomic ideas
- Reflects a range of opinion on animal taxonomy as it includes authors with opposing views of where animal taxonomy should be headed
Summary
The advent of relational databasing and data storage capacity, coupled with revolutionary advances in molecular sequencing technology and specimen imaging, have led to a taxonomic renaissance. Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark maps the origins of this renaissance, beginning with Linnaeus, through his "apostles", via the great unsung hero Charles Davies Sherbon — arguably the father of biodiversity informatics — up to the present day with the Planetary Biodiversity Inventories and into the future with the Encyclopedia of Life and web-based taxonomy.
The book provides scientific, historical, and cultural documentation of the evolution of taxonomy and the successful adaptation of the Linnaean nomenclature system to that evolution. It underscores the importance of taxonomic accuracy, not only for the classification of living organisms, but for a more complete understanding of the living world and its biodiversity. The book also examines the role of technologies such as DNA sequencing, specimen imaging, and electronic data storage.
A celebration of 250 years of the scientific naming of animals, Systema Naturae 250 - The Linnaean Ark records and explores the history of zoological nomenclature and taxonomy, detailing current and future activity in these fields. Descriptive taxonomy has been in decline, despite the fact that the classification of organisms through taxonomic studies provides the foundation of our understanding of life forms. Packed with illustrations and tables, this book establishes a vision for the future of descriptive taxonomy and marks the beginning of a period of rapid growth of taxonomic knowledge.
Table of Contents
The Major Historical Trends of Biodiversity Studies, E.O. Wilson
Linnaeus: A Passion for Order, D. Quammen
Daniel Rolander: The Invisible Naturalist, J. Dobreff
Taxonomy and the Survival of Threatened Animal Species: A Matter of Life and Death, G. McGregor Reid
Engineering a Linnaean Ark of Knowledge for a Deluge of Species, Q.D. Wheeler
Historical Name-Bearing Types in Marine Molluscs: An Impediment to Biodiversity Studies? P. Bouchet and E.E. Strong
Flying after Linnaeus: Diptera Names since Systema Naturae (1758), N.L. Evenhuis, T. Pape, A.C. Pont, and F.C. Thompson
e-Publish or Perish? S. Knapp and D. Wright
Reviving Descriptive Taxonomy after 250 Years: Promising Signs from a Mega-Journal in Taxonomy, Z.-Q. Zhang
Provisional Nomenclature: The On-Ramp to Taxonomic Names, D.E. Schindel and S.E. Miller
Future Taxonomy, D.J. Patterson
The Encyclopedia of Life: A New Digital Resource for Taxonomy, J. Hanken
Future Taxonomy Today: New Tools Applied to Accelerate the Taxonomic Process, N.F. Johnson
The All Genera Index: Strategies for Managing the BIG Index of All Scientific Names, D. Remsen
Linnaeus–Sherborn–ZooBank, A. Polaszek and E. Michel
ZooBank: Reviewing the First Year and Preparing for the Next 250, R.L. Pyle and E. Michel
Celebrating 250 Dynamic Years of Nomenclatural Debates, B. Dayrat
250 Years of Swedish Taxonomy, F. Ronquist
Appendices
Index
Editorial Reviews
The 18 chalptcrs cover just about every subject that could be subsumed under this title, from speculations about Linnaeus' childhood to problems with computerizing the names of all the world's plants and animals. The lengthiest chapter, 54 pages, was authored by B. Dayrat; it is a history of zoological nomenclature, written in a most engaging style. It may be old stuff to zoologists, but every botanist with an interest in nomenclature will want to read it.
—Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, Wisconsin-Oshkosh University, in Plant Science Bulletin 57( I) 2011
Summing Up: Essential. Active biological collections serving upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.
—E. Delson, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College, in CHOICE, April 2011
Overall, the smorgasbord of Systema Naturae 250 is a fitting tribute to the past 250 years of zoological nomenclature. This book justly celebrates the enormous accomplishments of the taxonomic community in cataloging almost 1.5 million animal species, and a method of scientific inquiry that has endured for more than a quarter of a millennium. This is illustrated in the book’s final chapter, in which Fredrik Ronquist reminds us that the birthplace of Linnaeus still has an active role in modern taxonomy through the work of the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative. The positive outlook presented by Polaszek and colleagues is especially encouraging from a discipline that at times has an unfortunate tendency to focus more on what it has not done, than on what it has achieved.
—Vincent S. Smith, Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum
Syst. Biol. 59(6):757–760, 2010
