Despite over 260 years of taxonomic research, only a small fraction of species has been scientifically named and described, rendering humans largely illiterate with respect to the biological diversity that surrounds us. Since past research has mostly focused on relatively species-poor groups of organisms, the remaining components of biodiversity, often referred to as ‘dark taxa’, are more difficult to elucidate. In the midst of the biodiversity crisis and high extinction rates, we must radically accelerate taxonomic workflow. Recently, two proposals have emerged to overcome the taxonomy crisis. The ‘minimalistic approach’ proposed rapid description of species based on DNA barcodes associated with minimalistic morphological evidence, whereas the ‘large-scale integrative taxonomy’ proposal suggested validating the barcode clusters based on quantitative indicators deriving from morphology or other sources of evidence. It also has been proposed that taxonomy would be best served if based exclusively on genetic evidence. Unprecedented technological advances on several fronts may provide the tools to tackle the taxonomy of superdiverse dark groups. This session discusses the possible conceptual and methodological advances to resolve the dark taxa problem.

 

 

 

Agenda

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Prospects and pitfalls of accelerated taxonomy.

Presenter: Spencer K Monckton
Affiliation Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph
Format: Full Talk

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Estimating the minimum number of global insect species by extrapolating data from intensive collections in Costa Rica.

Presenter: Michael Sharkey
Affiliation: Hymenoptera Institute and University of Kentucky
Format: Full Talk

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A Dark Decade: Progress on the world's most intractable "genus" (Diptera: Megaselia).

Presenter: Emily Hartop
Affiliation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Natural History, University Museum, NTNU, Trondheim
Format: Full Talk

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Augmenting the minimalistic taxonomic approach by nuclear markers – a blueprint.

Presenter: Marko Mutanen
Affiliation: University of Oulu, Finland, Ecology and Genetics Research Unit
Format: Full Talk

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Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) diversity in Finland in the light of high-throughput DNA barcoding and nuclear sequencing.

Presenter: Niina Kiljunen
Affiliation: University of Oulu, Finland, Ecology and Genetics Research Unit
Format: Full Talk

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Liberating imprisoned biodiversity data: applying a FAIR workflow to taxonomic treatments.

Presenter: Juliana Mariani Wingert
Affiliation: 
Format: Lightning Talk

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isolateR: an R package for high-throughput cataloguing of microbial isolates.

Presenter: Brendan Daisley
Affiliation: University of Guelph
Format: Lightning Talk

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