A positive, healthy step. Science has a long history of often failing to apply the same scrutiny and control of confounders it properly expects for good research to many of its own assumptions and biases.
American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People
"“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves,” said AOS President Colleen Handel, Ph.D., a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska. “Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely—and birds need our help now more than ever.”
Ornithologists have long grappled with historical and contemporary practices that contribute to the exclusion of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, including how birds are named. For example, in 2020, the AOS renamed a small prairie songbird found on the Great Plains to “Thick-billed Longspur.” The bird’s original name—honoring John P. McCown, an amateur naturalist who later became a general in the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War—was perceived as a painful link to slavery and racism."
Idiosyncratic #paleontology paper of the week for #fossilfriday: This line of research has been one of the coolest, creative lines of inquiry about IDs of #fossils that I've ever seen. UV light illuminates long-gone color patterns on cone #snail#shells
Hendricks, J. (2018). Diversity and preserved shell coloration patterns of Miocene Conidae (Neogastropoda) from an exposure of the Gatun Formation, Colón Province, Panama. doi:10.1017/jpa.2017.153
I have been doing taxonomy work for almost 20 years now and, without fail, every single time I have to review a geolocation facet I get the Beach Boys "Kokomo" stuck in my head... #taxonomy#occupationalhazards#music
One of the things I hate and think I'm really bad at, is going through old miscellanea and deciding
(a) whether to keep it (relatively straightforward) and
(b) where to put the stuff I keep.
Which category does it fit in? Is it sentimental stuff I never look at but can't bear to toss? Is it something that's occasionally useful if only I remember that I have it and where I put it?
Is it something I want to peruse for a while and then should just throw out (like my university course notes from 15 years ago) #SpringCleaning#taxonomy
Support is urgently requested to help keep Kew Herbarium at Kew.
The Director and Trustees intend to move the #Herbarium over an hour away from its current location at the heart of Kew.
Separating the herbarium from the gardens, library, and laboratories will cripple the ongoing taxonomic work at a time when we are facing a dire biodiversity crisis.