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A friend on another list recently came across the following link, and after some discussion I promised to bring it to the attention of other professional paleontologists for your opinions. http://www.nature.ca/research/ndfund/ndfund_e.cfm The gist of the situation is this: the Canadian Museum of Nature has set up something called the Nature Discovery Fund, a "not-for-profit fund designed to encourage public support for systematics." The goal seems to be to provide scientific names for all of the so-far-unnamed Canadian insect species, although the one example of progress cited on the website is from Costa Rica. To that end, they are apparently raising money and providing small research grants. The problem is that they are attracting financial backing in a most unusual manner. For a contribution of $500 or more (presumably Canadian), they will arrange to have an insect species named after the donor, or after whoever or whatever the donor wishes to honor, within 48 months of the donation. I realize that monetary support for taxonomy is hard to come by, and that I may be more traditionalist than many, but this arrangement strikes me as grossly unethical, and I wonder how many systematicists would go along with it. I would be very grateful for any comments; I promised to report back to my other list on your informed response. Bob Fleisher Houston, TX
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