Why is there no service to support taxonomy?

Abstract

Increasing complexity and specialisation of modern sciences has led to increasingly collaborative publications, as well as the involvement of commercial services. Modern integrative taxonomy likewise depends on many lines of evidence and is increasingly complex, but the trend of collaboration lags and various attempts at ‘turbo taxonomy’ have been unsatisfactory. We are developing a taxonomic service in the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance to provide fundamental data for new species descriptions. This will also function as a hub to connect a global network of taxonomists, assembling an alliance of scientists working on potential new species to tackle both the extinction and inclusion crises we face today. The current rate of new species descriptions is simply too slow; the discipline is often dismissed as old fashioned, and there is a crisis level need for taxonomic descriptions to come to grips with the scale of Anthropocene biodiversity loss. Here, we envision how the process of describing and naming species would benefit from a service supporting the acquisition of descriptive data.

Current knowledge of Holothuriida (Holothuroidea: Echinodermata) from Brazil

“…Prata et al (2014b), includes specimens collected in 1981, but which were analyzed and identified only recently). The populations of several species of marine invertebrates have been decreasing with the exposure to various environmental impacts (Sigwart et al, 2023). If we consider the changes that coastal environments have undergone in recent decades, such as the expansion of cities, waste disposal, loss of habitat, and climate change, it is not possible to say whether these species still occur in those locations sampled decades ago.…”