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The advent of relational data basing and data storage capacity, coupled with revolutionary advances in molecular sequencing technology and specimen imaging, have led to a taxonomic renaissance. This volume maps the origins of this renaissance, beginning with Linnaeus, through his "apostles", via the great unsung hero Charles Davies Sherbon - arguably the father of bioinformatics - up to the present day with the Planetary Biodiversity Inventories and into the future with the Encyclopedia of Life and web-based taxonomy. It provides scientific, historical, and cultural documentation of the evolution of taxonomy and the successful adaptation of the Linnean nomenclature system to that evolution.
The Major Historical Trends of Biodiversity Studies, E.O. Wilson Linnaeus: A Passion for Order, D. Quammen Daniel Rolander: The Invisible Naturalist, J. Dobreff Taxonomy and the Survival of Threatened Animal Species: A Matter of Life and Death, G. McGregor Reid Engineering a Linnaean Ark of Knowledge for a Deluge of Species, Q.D. Wheeler Historical Name-Bearing Types in Marine Molluscs: An Impediment to Biodiversity Studies? P. Bouchet and E.E. Strong Flying after Linnaeus: Diptera Names since Systema Naturae (1758), N.L. Evenhuis, T. Pape, A.C. Pont, and F.C. Thompson e-Publish or Perish? S. Knapp and D. Wright Reviving Descriptive Taxonomy after 250 Years: Promising Signs from a Mega-Journal in Taxonomy, Z.-Q. Zhang Provisional Nomenclature: The On-Ramp to Taxonomic Names, D.E. Schindel and S.E. Miller Future Taxonomy, D.J. Patterson The Encyclopedia of Life: A New Digital Resource for Taxonomy, J. Hanken Future Taxonomy Today: New Tools Applied to Accelerate the Taxonomic Process, N.F. Johnson The All Genera Index: Strategies for Managing the BIG Index of All Scientific Names, D. Remsen Linnaeus--Sherborn--ZooBank, A. Polaszek and E. Michel ZooBank: Reviewing the First Year and Preparing for the Next 250, R.L. Pyle and E. Michel Celebrating 250 Dynamic Years of Nomenclatural Debates, B. Dayrat 250 Years of Swedish Taxonomy, F. Ronquist Appendices Index
Natural History Museum, London, UK
The 18 chalptcrs cover just about every subject that could be subsumed under this title, from speculations about Linnaeus' childhood to problems with computerizing the names of all the world's plants and animals. The lengthiest chapter, 54 pages, was authored by B. Dayrat; it is a history of zoological nomenclature, written in a most engaging style. It may be old stuff to zoologists, but every botanist with an interest in nomenclature will want to read it. --Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, Wisconsin-Oshkosh University, in Plant Science Bulletin 57( I) 2011 Summing Up: Essential. Active biological collections serving upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. --E. Delson, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College, in CHOICE, April 2011 Overall, the smorgasbord of Systema Naturae 250 is a fitting tribute to the past 250 years of zoological nomenclature. This book justly celebrates the enormous accomplishments of the taxonomic community in cataloging almost 1.5 million animal species, and a method of scientific inquiry that has endured for more than a quarter of a millennium. This is illustrated in the book's final chapter, in which Fredrik Ronquist reminds us that the birthplace of Linnaeus still has an active role in modern taxonomy through the work of the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative. The positive outlook presented by Polaszek and colleagues is especially encouraging from a discipline that at times has an unfortunate tendency to focus more on what it has not done, than on what it has achieved. --Vincent S. Smith, Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum Syst. Biol. 59(6):757--760, 2010
