birding-aus

RFI: Albatross taxonomy

To:
Subject: RFI: Albatross taxonomy
From: "Peter Ewin" <>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 15:44:23 +1000
Unfortunately though these proposals haven't been fully accepted (though exactly when does a taxonomic difference of opinion ever get fully accepted) the neew names are being used. Two taxa which were previously included within the Wandering Albatross (alredy amn Endangered species in NSW) have been nominated as threatened species under the act as separate species (one is gibsoni, but I can't recall the other). I am guessing that this may be the case with Martin in Victoria as well. Though the twitcher in me always happy to have species split, even when it means risking sea sickness to see a few more species.
Cheers,
Peter


From: "Robert Berry" <>
To: <>
CC: <>
Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] RFI: Albatross taxonomy
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 12:41:18 +1000

Dear Martin,

The new taxonomy was proposed by

Robertson, C.J.R. & Nunn, G.B.(1998). Towards a new taxonomy for
albatrosses. Pp.13 - 19 in Albatross biology and conservation. Surrey Beatty
& Sons, Sydney.

The only justification for it is those authors' preference for the
phylogenetic species concept. Their interim classification was adopted in
the listings of the endangered and vulnerable species subject to the
Australian Federal Government's Endangered Species Protection Act 1992 when
updated in January 2000 (Environment Australia 2000). The merit of this
change is doubtful. Robertson and Nunn themselves state that

"the level of mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence between albatross taxa
is relatively small compared to their diagnosable . character differences.
Reassuringly, traditional taxonomic and novel molecular phylogenetic methods
are largely supportive of each other."

Nonetheless they propose changing from 14 to 24 species in four genera
rather than two. They anticipate that molecular systematic analyses will
confirm the wisdom of this. Since the result is concordant with the terminal
taxa of the traditional biological species concept based classification and
the Act operates at the subspecies level the effect of this change is
negligible. It represents nothing but a preference for an alternative
species concept.

Regards

Bob Berry.


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