Abstract
Abstract. Approximately one-third of the c. 1200 polycystine radiolarian names currently recognized as valid in deep-sea research (Cenozoic sediments and plankton) come from the first century of taxonomic studies (c. 1840–1930). German scientists dominated early research on radiolarian biology and taxonomy. C. G. Ehrenberg’s initial work was followed by E. Haeckel’s mammoth monographic works, particularly his Challenger report. Other important early workers were D. Rüst on Mesozoic and Palaeozoic forms and A. Popofsky on plankton and sediment materials, with smaller contributions by J. Müller, E. Stöhr, F. Dreyer and H. Mast. Excluding Haeckel, these workers together published over 2000 species names. A fraction (5–25%) of these names are still used today in deep-sea research, with a tendency for more prolific authors to have higher modern usage rates. Haeckel’s legacy is different. He published over 5000 species names, but only a few percent are still used. The reasons for his species names no longer being used seem to include both factors common to disuse of names from other early authors (inadequate text descriptions, poor or absent illustration, no preserved original materials) but also due to substantial duplication of species and genus names, created by imposition of a partially artificial high level taxonomy. Based on Haeckel’s own writings and by analogy to other parts of Haeckel’s work, it is suggested that Haeckel’s desire to discover and show evolutionary relationships lay behind this flawed approach to taxonomy.
Highlights
All science is incremental in that it builds on past work
This paper provides a summary of this prior taxonomic work on fossilizable radiolaria (i.e. Polycystinea)
This list of radiolarian species names was created by a team of workers as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s (IODP) efforts to improve data management and multiplatform database integration (Lazarus et al, 2012)
Summary
All science is incremental in that it builds on past work. In micropalaeontology an early foundation of taxonomy and basic biological study has been needed to enable the use of microfossils as tools to understand geological processes, determine age or to study the mechanisms of evolution. A reasonably comprehensive compilation and, for species names employed in the deep-sea drilling programmes, evaluation (valid, synonym, etc.) has been made which will be used here to provide numerical data on species taxonomy (Lazarus et al, 2012). This list of radiolarian species names was created by a team of workers as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s (IODP) efforts to improve data management and multiplatform database integration (Lazarus et al, 2012). This ‘taxonomic name list’, or TNL, contains over 1600 valid species names and, in all, over 17 000 radiolarian species names or name variants
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