RE: Species [ was: Re: Hadrosaur nomenclature]

["R. Irmis" <rbi@dana.ucc.nau.edu>]

>To sum up:
>
>A) Species may be real.
>
>B) Whether or not they are, I disagree strongly with the contention that
>fossil species are somehow different from neontological species, as they
>involve recognizing the same class of real entities (although perhaps from
>less data).

I still am not convinced that the criteria by which paleontologists diagnose
species is at all accurate, considering the wide intrageneric and
intraspecific ontological variation that is seen in modern taxa.  Its easy
to do an ontological diagnosis on extant taxa, because you can see what kind
of variation occurs in related forms, but I think it is next to impossible
to do this in extinct taxa.  Perhaps we should arbitrarily define
"ontotaxa"?  It would be arbitrary, but would provide some sort of standard.

>F) The way to resolve issue of paleontological diversity is to address
>the TRUE units of diversity, species. To do this, we must address named
>fossil species from a critical standpoint, recognizing modern perspectives
>on variation, and decide which species we consider likely to be real.

I agree, however, Im not sure whether EPB will be totally helpful, as birds
can show almost no specific variation, or lots of it, ontologically
speaking.

Regards,
Randall Irmis