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New World Monkey Nightmares: Science, Art, Use, and Abuse (?) in Platyrrhine Taxonomic Nomenclature
Author(s) -
ROSENBERGER Alfred L.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american journal of primatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.988
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1098-2345
pISSN - 0275-2565
DOI - 10.1002/ajp.22037
Subject(s) - nomenclature , terminology , taxonomy (biology) , biology , zoology , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics
The taxonomy and nomenclature of N ew W orld monkeys is becoming precariously unstable and impractical, plagued by revisions aimed at conforming to approaches that reject the B iological S pecies C oncept for narrowly construed reasons and resulting in a hyperinflated taxonomy at species (often) and genus (sometimes) levels. This undermines a major goal of classification at the most basic taxonomic levels to ease communication and facilitate research. Since it is difficult to justify extensive changes in terminology without a deeply justified theoretical purpose or without showing what scientific benefits these alterations can bring, working primatologists need not accept this doctrinaire trend. Knowing as little as we do about what a species actually is, does not justify contorting the value of a species nomenclature so that it reflects nothing more than coat color, a node, or endpoint of a dendrogram. Am. J. Primatol. 74:692‐695, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.