The 'T' Word...

Taxonomy (and nomenclature, and related) 

By Pete Garbett 

“Taxonomy will always be in a state of flux” ~ an early 1970s statement made to me by a museum curator. 

I was a young secondary school student when I first heard that statement. Decades on, my thoughts on that quote are that the lady most certainly could not have made a more profound and accurate statement. 

But what the museum curator didn’t elaborate on was how differing that taxonomic views would become over time; nor perhaps could she have foreseen what effect the ‘G’ word (genetics) was to have on the subject in time to come. 

It goes without saying that there will never be unanimous agreement on the taxonomic status of the Cetacea; and whilst a general consensus may be agreed upon (for a time) there will continue to be division… 

At the risk of opening the proverbial can of worms, I’m keen to know the opinions of individuals on taxonomy and nomenclature of cetaceans. Feel free to comment… 

Selected list of relevant links and titles: 
www.iczn.org/
www.iczn.org/the-code/the-international-code-of-zoological-nomenclature/
marinemammalscience.org/smm-news/taxonomy-committee-2024-annual-review/
Agnarsson I, May-Collado LJ. 2008 The phylogeny of Cetartiodactyla: the importance of dense taxon sampling, missing data, and the remarkable promise of cytochrome b to provide reliable species-level phylogenies. Mol Phylogenet Evol. Sep;48(3):964-85. 
Brower, A. V. Z., & Schuh, R. T. 2021 Biological Systematics: Principles and Applications (3rd ed.). Cornell University Press. 
Groves, C., & Jackson, S. 2015 Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. (1 ed.) CSIRO Publishing. 
LeDuc, R. G., Perrin, W.F.; Dizon, A. E. 1999 Phylogenetic relationships among the delphinid cetaceans based on full cytochrome B sequences. Marine Mammal Science. 15:619–648. 
Miller, V. 2021 Inside Biological Taxonomy. United States: Rosen Publishing. 
Pavlinov, I. 2021 Biological Systematics: History and Theory (1st ed.). CRC Press. 
Price SA, Bininda-Emonds OR, Gittleman JL. 2005 A complete phylogeny of the whales, dolphins and even-toed hoofed mammals (Cetartiodactyla). Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2005 Aug;80(3):445-73. 
Rieppel, O. 2016 Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (1st ed.). CRC Press. 
Simpson, G. G. 1990 Principles of animal taxonomy. Columbia University Press, New York: Pp xii, 247. 
Strahan, R. 1981 A Dictionary of Australian Mammal Names. Angus & Robertson. 
Williams, D., Schmitt, M., Wheeler, Q. 2016 The Future of Phylogenetic Systematics: The Legacy of Willi Hennig. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Cetal Fauna Species List: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QLXZb8eQFhBtRVKim4q4xOY-5T6ARaZS/view?usp=sharing