Alpha Taxonomy I: Distinguishing Species

• Main Author: Miller, Charles B.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197637326.003.0004; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58024127/oso-9780197637326-chapter-4.pdf

Abstract Chapter 4 addresses first the nature of taxonomy, the meaning of the term “species,” and the variety of so-called species concepts. A bio introduces Bruce Frost, a prominent marine copepod taxonomist, whose work provides an early example of the refined morphological observations that now allow distinction of new species by splitting seemingly well-defined older ones. Frost’s study of Clausocalanus for his dissertation under Abraham Fleminger illustrates the importance for oceanic zooplankton of examining specimens of a genus from its entire global range. That tropical/subtropical genus of thirteen species (five of them newly recognized by Frost and Fleminger) includes distribution patterns that recur in all widely distributed zooplankton groups. Frost later took precision taxonomy to Arctic and boreal waters, describing all seven species of Pseudocalanus (three of them newly recognized), again revealing distribution patterns common among planktonic animals and even algae. Frost’s other contributions to biological oceanography are mentioned.