Richard L. Pyle

@ymgan these are really good points. We wrestle with this all the time, and I would very-much value insights from others. Stated in slightly different terms, given the source text...

I agree it's impractical to get into the head of the person whom asserted the identification, but my preference for option 1 is more practical. Dave Remsen often spoke of...

Thanks, @ymgan > To me, both of the options are not certain that it is "Quercus agrifolia var. oxyadenia", Yes, I would agree with this. Indeed, I think in almost...

Many thanks, @tammyhorton! This is really helpful to me, and has given me a new perspective on how to think about the best ways to represent content for `scientificName`, `identificationQualifier`,...

To define what is meant by a "taxon" instance (to which a taxonID is assigned), we need to establish what are the "core proprties" of an instance of a "taxon",...

Yes, exactly! Dave and I discussed this at some length at Woods hole. What it boils down to is this: When a new species is described, what would its type...

By the way, if we can address this informatically, then we will have also created a REALLY valuable tool to distinguish "true" new species from "split" new species. An analogy...

It depends on how much you want to reflect reality, and it also depends on what you mean by stability. The undortunate reality is that the meaning of a genus-level...

Personally, I'm happy with defining a taxon by the set of "types" it contains. That is, a "species" concept represents the sum of the species-group protonyms (as proxies for type...

Thanks, @ThierryBourgoin and @mdoering -- this is helpful. This conversation is touching on the same problems of communication that have plagued these discussions for several decades now (going back at...