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Subject:
From:
Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 15 Jun 2000 02:46:05 +0000
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Let's try this again - someone must know why there are only a handful of
mollucan publications for 30 years or so after Linneus invented the
modern binomial system! Were there a lot of non-binomial publications
that were subsequently discarded, or was it just so difficult to publish
things, that only a few determined people actually did it - or was there
just not that much interest in publishing taxonomic papers about
molluscs during this period??

Origional question:

There may be a simple explanation, but it has always seemed odd to me
that from Linneues' establishing of the modern binomial system in 1758,
hardly any molluscs appear to have been described before Hwass in 1792,
except for Chemnitz and Muller, and Linne himself: during this 34 year
period, it seems that one can count the number of Molluscan taxonomy
papers on the fingers of one or two hands - why????  Virtually
everything was in need of a binomial name then, and explorers must have
been dragging new species back to Europe at a brisk pace - so why were
so few eager scientists, amateur or otherwise, involved in describing
new species?  Is this also the case in other phyla??

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