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Posted by chrish on January 12, 2003 at 23:25:24:
In Reply to: Re: Actually, we don't disagree... posted by BGF on January 10, 2003 at 15:43:12:
But I still don't see how anyone could believe that standardizing common names could be a bad thing.
I don't use common names for many things and I wouldn't use them much more often if there was a good list. And I would probably have to learn many of them, but at least I would be learning an "accepted" name and would be better able to communicate with non-technical herpers.
Yes, there would be problems to work out, but that doesn't negate the validity of the exercise.
The boa issue you point out (BGF that is) is a problem with the poor foresight (or deliberate overgeneralization) of local jurisdictions, not with the common name list, IMHO.
In regard to the criticism of Ernie Liner's mexican herp list, I tend to look at the effort as a whole and see it as movement in the right direction. Of course there are problems in his list, but now we know which problems have to be resolved. You have to start somewhere, and I salute Ernie for all the work he put into it. No one else had ever made the effort. (And remember, Ernie isn't and never was a professional herpetologist. I think it was a tremendous contribution. I am sure if any critics were willing to contact Ernie or the publishers, they would be happy to let you redo all the work and fix all the problems in a second edition).
