Comparative data
Mike Dallwitz
md at ENTO.CSIRO.AU
Thu Sep 7 09:08:56 CEST 2000
> From: "P. F. Stevens" <peter.stevens at MOBOT.ORG>
> To: TDWG-SDD at USOBI.ORG
>> producing comparative data is difficult. Nevertheless,
>> shouldn't this be one of the main objectives of taxonomy?
> Absolutely. And surely this is what we are trying to facilitate here, and
> what guides the discussion.
My comments were in response to Kevin Thiele's opinion:
> I think part of the basic problem is [trying] to force too much structure
> and while this is a great promise it's been an impediment in practice.
'Structure' apparently means a character list, i.e. the basis for producing
comparative data. Although Kevin says elsewhere that both structured and
unstructured data should be allowed (and I agree - they are allowed in
DELTA), the above statement seems to suggest that the 'impediment' should be
avoided by encouraging the use of non-comparative data.
--
Mike Dallwitz
CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Phone: +61 2 6246 4075 Fax: +61 2 6246 4000
Email: md at ento.csiro.au Internet: biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/
More information about the tdwg-content
mailing list