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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thomasdonegan" data-source="post: 3574239" data-attributes="member: 5190">I found this an interesting paper, exposing a real issue about taxonomic inconsistencies with practical examples - but do not think the committee proposal is a go-er, for all the reasons Morgan mentions.  In birds, committees do not have a great track record either, whether due to work overload/lack of attention making their lists out of date, the inevitable conflicts that arise when people purport to make decisions about others' work or inconsistencies of philosophy.  I am not convinced that committees are the answer to anything in taxonomy, and some of them have created more trouble for taxonomy than benefits - AOU/SACC's approach to obvious splits by unaffiliated research groups over its history has doubtless set back post-Ridgely taxonomy by a decade or so, and has had a generation of taxonomists re-studying old news rather than making discoveries of their own.As for justifying this by the prominence given to people wanting to kill a checklist of antelopes, are we not better trying to adopt a Kenya model to recreational hunting (i.e. prohibit it) and challenge why people need to kill wild animals for fun, rather than a US model?  Apparently, Trump just passed a law allowing people to kill wild animals in US national parks from a helicopter.  We'd be better off as conservationists or birders to challenge these sorts of negative societal changes rather than blaming ourselves for not having a taxonomic committee!TD</blockquote>

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