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paleonet Species names for sale



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