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Frontispiece. Artistic rendering of the new genus and species of stingray described in the present paper in its natural environment. This stingray taxon occurred in Fossil Lake, an extinct tropical to subtropical freshwater intermontane lake that formed as a consequence of the orogeny of the Rocky mountains (fig. 1). Sediments from Fossil Lake are exposed as the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation in presentday Wyoming (some 52 million years before present). The adult female is giving birth through viviparity; this scene is inspired by specimen AMNH 11557, in which an adult female stingray is preserved alongside two small stingrays that are inferred to be her aborted late-term fetuses (fig. 3; see text for details). Based on an original painting by David W. Miller and modified from Maisey (1996: pl. 42).

* The vision, ideas, observations and recommendations presented in this report are summarized from discussions by the participants during the 'Sustain What?' workshop held in New York in November 2010. The atmosphere was an example of creative collaboration at its best and the intellectual property herein belongs to the participants as a whole. Agreement with everything in the report by any single author should not be assumed as there was lively debate and disagreements over details. That said, most major points including, importantly, the feasibility of a 50-year species inventory were agreed to by all. The participants willingly set aside minor divergences of opinion in the interest of community-building and the creation of a powerful general vision for what can be.

LETTERSUndercover. Many Alpheidae shrimps live deep in the reef and are impossible to collect nonlethally. Published by AAAS

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The morphology of the articular region of the scapulocoracoid and the basal cartilages of the pectoral fin endoskeleton of elasmobranchs is reviewed in detail. Examination of this specific morphology in more than 140 species of elasmobranchs (of which 40 are reported here) revealed characters that may have a bearing on the higher-level phylogeny of the group. Ten distinct characters of the scapular articular region of elasmobranchs are described, varying in terms of the number of distinct articular sites as well as their specific morphology (e.g. whether the articular surface is composed of condyles and/or facets). Previous interpretations of the articular region in morphological phylogenies are also reviewed, revealing much more morphological variation than formerly reported. These prior characters played an important role in supporting the Hypnosqualea, and may still be derived for this clade. The variation and distribution of the new characters discussed provide new insights for the evolution of the pectoral endoskeleton in chondrichthyans. They also highlight the continued importance of morphological characters for phylogenetic studies, and reinforce the necessity of in-depth anatomical reviews of certain characters employed in previous higher-level phylogenetic studies of elasmobranchs.

Systematists have come under a barrage of criticism because of the alleged inadequacy of the 'traditional' taxonomic paradigm to curb the 'biodiversity crisis' and expeditiously make available the products of systematic research-usually species names-to the professional biological 'user' community (including ecologists, physiologists, population geneticists, and conservationists). The accusations leveled on systematists range from being 'slow' to 'incapable' of furnishing these products at a rate considered (by users) appropriate, especially given that the professional systematic community is portrayed as being in stark decline while operating in a quickly deteriorating natural world. Some of the critics have proposed solutions to this 'taxonomic impediment' in the form of a triumvirate adjoining a unitary taxonomic cyberstructure + automated DNA barcoding + molecular phylogeny, which we consider to be nothing but a threefold miopia; one critic has even gone as far as to suggest that biologists who need systematists can circumvent this dependency by 'doing systematics themselves'. The application of a quick-fix, 'automatedpragmatist' model is antithetical to a science endowed with a strong epistemological and theoretical foundation. We view the current propaganda in favor of automation and pragmatism in systematics as a distraction from the real issues confronting systematists, who must do more to impede the current trend that has 'marginalized' organismal biology in general. Simply increasing the rate of species descriptions, as suggested by critics, will not ameliorate the 'crisis'-taxa that correspond to incorrect hypotheses of biological entities (i.e. that are not monophyletic) will compromise the reliability of systematic information. Systematists must therefore provide more than 'binomials'-they must strive to produce vigorous hypotheses of comparative biology that are historical and theory-rich in order to augment the general reference system that is so critical to research in other biological sciences and conservation.

Citation: Trajano E, Carvalho MR (2017) Towards a biologically meaningful classification of subterranean organisms: a critical analysis of the Schiner-Racovitza system frpm a historical perspective, difficulties of its application and implications for conservation. Subterranean Biology 22: 1-26. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.22.9759 Abstract Subterranean organisms always attracted the attention of humans using caves with various purposes, due to the strange appearance of several among them and life in an environment considered extreme. According to a classification based on the evolutionary and ecological relationships of these organisms with subterranean habitats, first proposed by Schiner in 1854 and emended by Racovitza in 1907, three categories have been recognized: troglobites, troglophles and trogloxenes. The Schiner-Racovitza system has been discussed, criticized, emended, the categories have been redefined, subdivided, original meanings have changed, but it is used until now. Herein we analyze in a conceptual framework the main ecological classifications of subterranean organisms, from Schiner to Trajano, in 2012, so far the last author to introduce a relevant conceptual change on the categories definitions, incorporating the source-sink population model. Conceptual inconsistencies are pointed, especially with regards to the generally ill-defined trogloxene category, and the correspondence between categories according to the original sense and in alternative classifications is discussed. Practical criteria for distinction between these categories and difficulties for their application are presented. The importance of rightly classifying subterranean populations according to the Schiner-Racovitza system for conservation of these fragile and mostly threatened habitats is discussed.