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Posted by vvvddd on January 22, 2003 at 17:52:01:
In Reply to: There's also the statement by some... posted by Kenny Wray on January 21, 2003 at 00:14:38:
I completely agree with you Kenny. I think it would be much more beneficial to standardize the scientific names before any thought was even considered at standardizing common names. This especially in light of competing SSAR/CNAH/etc lists, some of which recognize E. allegeniensis, some E. obsoleta, and the like. This doesn't just happen with North American species. There are a bunch of different opinions about the taxonomy of boas and pythons and probably 2 or 3 competing lists for those as well. Seems to me like a lot of taxonomists are just trying to get their names somewhere and one-up each other. I mean really, how valuable is it to spend a couple thousand dollars and months or years of research to determine that some subspecies or species really should or shouldn't be differentiated (except in light of a substantial conservation arguement)? Seems like it would be much more beneficial to actually start testing inter-continental genera (Elaphe, Coluber, Agkistrodon, Boa, etc.) to see if they really are related enough to be in the same genus (considering how long some continents have been separated, I really doubt it). How about a standard list of families and subfamilies? Seems like that would be relatively easy to do but then there are differing opinions as to whether vipers, pitvipers, boas, pythons, etc should be a family or subfamily.
My rant,
Van
