[tdwg-content] tdwg-content Digest, Vol 20, Issue 17

[Nico Cellinese]

Thank you Rich! Ditto!

Nico

On Nov 3, 2010, at 2:53 PM, Richard Pyle wrote:

>> I think if I'm understanding what John wrote, 
>> he was going to substitute "taxon" for "species 
>> (or lower taxonomic rank if it exists)" with 
>> the understanding that Individual is not 
>> intended to be used for aggregates of 
>> different taxa.  That would solve this problem, right?
> 
> It depends on what you mean by "different taxa".  If you are using the word
> "taxa" here to imply "species or lower ranks", than I don't think it would
> solve the problem.  But if you mean it in a generic way, then I'm OK with
> that.  By "in a generic way", suppose I had a trawl sample or a plankton tow
> sample that included unidentified organisms from multiple phyla, all of
> which are animals.  I should not be prevented from representing this
> aggregate as an "Individual", with an identification instances linked to a
> taxon concept labelled as "Animalia".  This means the contents of the
> Individual all belong to a single taxon (Animalia), and therefore it does
> not violate the condition excluding aggregates of different taxa. An
> instance of Individual so identified would be almost useless for many
> purposes, I agree -- but it's easy enough to filter such Individuals out by
> looking at dwc:taxonRank of the Taxon to which the Individual was
> identified. Also, it's not useless for all purposes, because a botanist
> would like to know that s/he doesn't have to look through that sample to
> find stuff of interest.
> 
> I guess my point is, there should not be any rank-based requirement for the
> implied taxon circumscription of an "Individual".
> 
> Rich
> 
> 


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Nico Cellinese, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator, Herbarium & Informatics
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
354 Dickinson Hall, PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, U.S.A.
Tel. 352-273-1979
Fax 352-846-1861
http://cellinese.blogspot.com/