paleonet Re: practical taxonomy for the next generation

[argo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Like many of us, I worry that many specialists are not being replaced, and that for many groups, there will, in the near future, be no one who can really key out key species, especially those needed for biostratigraphy.  To that end, I am thinking about a practical way to key out otherwise difficult groups using digital photography and imageJ.  I am well on my way with such a system that can key out Baculites (ammonite) species, by measuring cross sectional shape, a practical means of describing sutures (complexity, roundness of elements (from imageJ), a sutural "shape" descriptor, and finally, an ornament descriptor.  From large populations of two species, we have come up with a sense of variability.

This work has opened my eyes about how woefully oversplit Cretaceous ammonites are. My conclusions in this work are that Baculites are vastly, vastly oversplit.  For example, Baculites sp. (smooth), B. sp. weak flanks, B. reduncus, Baculites haresi, and perhaps B. obtusus, all from the Western Interior, are all one species based on how their measures all fall into the same plotted region for each of the characters above, and are all assignable to B. inornatus Meek of the West Coast and elsewhere.  My hope is that any field geologist with a digital camera and a computer will be able to make quantitative measures helping in identification.

With this e mail I am wondering if there are others in the community who are engaged in similar efforts, and, if so, if we could come together, perhaps at GSA?  I have a vision of a new kind of Treatise, where identifications are not, as Bruce Saunders used to say, based on "too much college, and not enough high school".

I also would like to see a practical view of the "species concept" for each of our groups.  Biostratigraphy demanded ever finer species differentiations.  But better views of the biology of our groups often shows conflicts.  The nearest analogue to a Baculites is the modern cephalopod Spirula.  Like a Baculites must have, it floats vertically, head down, and is carried largely from place to place by currents.  One would predict but one species of Spirala, and that is all that there is.  I would predict low numbers of true Baculites species, but that is not how the fossil record has been interpreted.

Hope this is of more interest than paleoooooooooooology

Professor Peter D Ward
Dept of Biology
The University of Washington
Seattle, 98195
206-543-2962  ( Office )