RFI: Albatross taxonomy

["Peter Ewin" <>]

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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