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Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy

A recently proposed taxonomic classification of extant ungulates sparked a series of publications that criticize the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) claiming it to be a particularly poor species concept. These opinions reiteratively stated that (1) the two fundamental elements of the "PSC&qu...

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Autores principales: Gutiérrez, Eliécer E., Garbino, Guilherme S. T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Science Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6102684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29551763
http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.037
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author Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.
Garbino, Guilherme S. T.
author_facet Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.
Garbino, Guilherme S. T.
author_sort Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.
collection PubMed
description A recently proposed taxonomic classification of extant ungulates sparked a series of publications that criticize the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) claiming it to be a particularly poor species concept. These opinions reiteratively stated that (1) the two fundamental elements of the "PSC", i.e., monophyly and diagnosability, do not offer objective criteria as to where the line between species should be drawn; and (2) that extirpation of populations can lead to artificial diagnosability and spurious recognitions of species. This sudden eruption of criticism against the PSC is misleading. Problems attributed to the PSC are common to most approaches and concepts that modern systematists employ to establish species boundaries. The controversial taxonomic propositions that sparked criticism against the PSC are indeed highly problematic, not because of the species concept upon which they are based, but because no evidence (whatsoever) has become public to support a substantial portion of the proposed classification. We herein discuss these topics using examples from mammals. Numerous areas of biological research rest upon taxonomic accuracy (including conservation biology and biomedical research); hence, it is necessary to clarify what are (and what are not) the real sources of taxonomic inaccuracy.
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spelling pubmed-61026842018-09-18 Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy Gutiérrez, Eliécer E. Garbino, Guilherme S. T. Zool Res Article A recently proposed taxonomic classification of extant ungulates sparked a series of publications that criticize the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) claiming it to be a particularly poor species concept. These opinions reiteratively stated that (1) the two fundamental elements of the "PSC", i.e., monophyly and diagnosability, do not offer objective criteria as to where the line between species should be drawn; and (2) that extirpation of populations can lead to artificial diagnosability and spurious recognitions of species. This sudden eruption of criticism against the PSC is misleading. Problems attributed to the PSC are common to most approaches and concepts that modern systematists employ to establish species boundaries. The controversial taxonomic propositions that sparked criticism against the PSC are indeed highly problematic, not because of the species concept upon which they are based, but because no evidence (whatsoever) has become public to support a substantial portion of the proposed classification. We herein discuss these topics using examples from mammals. Numerous areas of biological research rest upon taxonomic accuracy (including conservation biology and biomedical research); hence, it is necessary to clarify what are (and what are not) the real sources of taxonomic inaccuracy. Science Press 2018-03-08 2018-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC6102684/ /pubmed/29551763 http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.037 Text en © 2018. Editorial Office of Zoological Research, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.
Garbino, Guilherme S. T.
Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title_full Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title_fullStr Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title_full_unstemmed Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title_short Species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
title_sort species delimitation based on diagnosis and monophyly, and its importance for advancing mammalian taxonomy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6102684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29551763
http://dx.doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.037
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