I agree with Paul that holotypes should be deposited in an institutional collection as a requirement for availability. The ICZN should require this and also should define what an institutional collection is and is not. It is not some cobbled up big name for some ones private collection just to give it an institutional look. It would not be all that difficult to come up with a listing of recognized type repositories and could be one exists now in the museum world. There is no doubt in my mind that the many faux institutions given for many of the descriptions of new species will cease to exist when the blush is off the rose. Many of the descriptions in the non-peer reviewed press make attempts to appear scientific but in my opinion these are pseudo-science. They are pale imitations of classic or modern malacological science.
It is also my opinion that description of new species by shell dealers is by definition a conflict of interest. It is simply a way to provide a name to market the shell under. These names are really scientific fluff and will die in due course. I am an old timer and these same things were happening in the 1970's and 1980's. I complained then about it in HSN print editions. It is as though the Sowerbys' ghost are still with us. This is particularly a problem with groups that draw big prices such as Conus and Cypraea. I have no qualms about buying specimens and appreciate the efforts of dealers that I do business with. I draw the line when that dealer is naming things in private publications or in supposed journals of nearly no circulation. I understand it is easier to sell Conus eumitus for a big price than it is to sell something listed as a blue Conus textile but let someone else name it. Dealers finding new species should work with malacological specialists (Not me, I have
never described a cone shell despite working with them for over thirty five years. I might someday but only in the context of a larger study of many taxa from particular geographic areas). This might be frustrating but that is the way it is.
I think that anyone who takes the step to describe a new species should be confident enough of this to submit the work to a peer-reviewed journal. I do not mean one with an editorial board but one that uses outside anonymous review. If the paper is rejected maybe there is good reason and the revision will be much better. I have heard all of the complaints about peer review but would you like your new wonder drug to get approval based on a study submitted to the local health magazine? If it is good enough, it will publish. I should venture the opinion that fewer than 35% of the cone shell names published post-1990 actually represent distinct biological entities.
There also is a huge problem in collections (private and institutional) based on material assembled by collectors. These specimens never represent the actual populations from which they were drawn. There is always some underlying bias in what is collected and what is saved versus what is discarded. If you look at a some species such as Conus anemone from southern Australia, collectors save the ones with high spires but leave those with the normal low spires. Thus you get the idea that the high spired form is typical for the region. It is not. In random samples more are similar in spire structure to C. anemone from elsewhere. The high spired shells are actually teratogenic specimens. Similarly, trawlers bring up all the Brazilian cones but they are sorted and every less common color now has some foolish name. I would never believe these as valid without seeing a publication based on the shells just as the trawler collected them not as the dealer sorted them. Moreover with
few exceptions you would be hard pressed to prove that these objects actually contained a snail at one time. One value of institutional collecting is that generally the collectors collect everything and everything ends up in the collections. This is almost never true of private collections or collections donated by private collectors to museums.
Yours,
John K. Tucker
-----Original message-----
From: Paul Callomon [log in to unmask]
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:51:01 -0500
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Paratypes & collection for sale here
Hi Linda and everyone,
There is nothing at all wrong with people keeping paratypes in their
own collections. Remember that there is no limit on the number of
paratypes you can select in an original description, so if you want to
reward the people who got you the shell, your accountant, travel agent,
whoever, then by all means add another paratype to the type series and
give it to them. The more paratypes there are, the more material exists
that can (usually) be used to identify that species by direct
comparison.
Holotypes are another matter. The ICZN only 'recommends' that holotypes
be placed in a suitable museum or other institution, so there is
technically no bar to keeping them yourself or selling them. In the old
days, indeed, dealers like Sowerby and Fulton used to sell primary types
(syntypes, mainly) and mark them as such too, to put up the price. In
those days, on the other hand, women couldn't vote, tigers were shot by
the hundreds for fun and orphaned children were sent to factories at age
eight, so just because something has been done in the past does not mean
we should still be doing it now.
The main reason for urging anyone who describes a new species to place
the holotype in a publicly-run institution is the hope that its
whereabouts will thus still be known in a hundred years' time. Some
little private museums keep collections of primary types, and to be fair
some of them do as good a job of preserving them and making them
available as any larger institution. Very few small private museums last
beyond the lifetime of their founders, however. Then there are certain
other private museums that are run by people with as scanty a knowledge
of - and regard for - the conventions of science as some of the
contributors to this forum. Sadly, these are usually the hardest people
to persuade that they are doing anything wrong, and the first to take
such suggestions personally.
I 'recommend' to my small son that he not swear, not pick his nose
where anyone can see and give up his seat on the bus to someone who is
old and frail. I can't make him do it, but I know what people will think
of him if he ignores these recommendations.
PC.
Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at www.malacological.org
>>> Linda Bush <[log in to unmask]> 6/1/2007 1:25 PM >>>
Hi, Everyone!
Why should I give up my paratype of a recently named species, when the
person who gave/sold them to the dealer was the museum professional who
described the species?
Oh, for those of you who inquired about the collection for sale here in
St. Louis - we still do not have an appraisal of it, but the appraiser
is back in town, so he will eventually get around to it.
Cheers,
Linda
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