Why we have no serious alternatives but cooperative taxonomy

Abstract

abstract. Taxonomic work has been historically regarded as a two-fold discipline. The first, which is basically aimed at answering the question about the diversity in whatever group under study, includes most of the "biological" questions of the research. Understanding of genetic and morphological variation, structure of populations and life cycles, biogeography and phylogeography, ecological modeling, pollination and other biological components is required to define the relationships among the taxa of the group and eventually to describe their diversity. The second part of the work consists in applying a correct name to all of the organisms as they result from the biological work. This second step is usually interpreted as the documentary component of the research, and in fact it mostly deals with the document sources and the rules of biological nomenclature (such as protologues, types and other historical materials associated with the type collections, etc.). However, the use of nomenclatural sources with little or no consideration for the biological aspects of the concerned organisms can be misleading, and the same concept of "type" can be hardly understood if not framed in a rich biological context. Type specimens are just random, individual samples that must be interpreted in the context of the geographical and biological integrity of any given species, and this requires at least some direct knowledge of the organisms and their biology. When the geographical origin of type specimens lies outside the political boundaries of a given study area, taxonomic research is seriously hampered by the impossibility to visualize and understand them in a biological framework. A specific case from the research intended to complete the treatment of the Orchidaceae for the flora of Costa Rica will exemplify how a cooperative approach based on a shared methodology may be the only way to resolve the taxonomy of complex species.resumen. El trabajo taxonómico ha sido históricamente considerado como una disciplina doble. Por un lado, su objetivo fundamental es responder a la pregunta sobre la diversidad de cualquier grupo bajo estudio, y esto incluye la mayoría de las preguntas "biológicas" de la investigación. Para entender las relaciones y parentescos entre los taxones de un determinado grupo, y finalmente describir su diversidad, se requiere de la comprensión de la variación genética y morfológica, de la estructura de las poblaciones y sus ciclos de vida, de la bio-y filogeografía, de los modelos ecológicos, así como de la polinización y otros componentes bióticos que interactúan con los taxones en estudio. La segunda parte del trabajo consiste en la aplicación de un nombre correcto a cada uno de los organismos así como resultan identificados a través de al etapa biológica del estudio. Esta segunda etapa se interpreta usualmente como la componente documentaria de la investigación, y de hecho tienen mayormente que ver con las fuentes documentales y las reglas de la nomenclatura biológica (tales como protólogos, tipos y otros m...

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