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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2020-01-31
Page range: 43–45
Abstract views: 260
PDF downloaded: 228

Navigating the Ship of Theseus from typology to cartography

Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA.
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JOHN T. LONGINO

School of Biology, Professor
species taxonomy typology development diversity

Abstract

Taxonomy is the business of describing and naming organismal diversity. What that means exactly must shift as our conceptual framework shifts (as it did during the time of Darwin) and as what we are able to see shifts as a result of technological assists. We are at a moment of profound conceptual and technological change. Here I give some personal thoughts on three top questions in taxonomy. Are traditional naming conventions compatible with massive cryptic genetic discontinuity? Can we agree on what we are delimiting and naming?  Can we excite public interest without typology?

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