Monday, September 23, 2013

Against the naming of fungi

Here's an interesting opinion piece published in Fungal Biology entitled "Against the naming of fungi:"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878614613000871
It highlights problems with the Linnean taxonomic system, and proposes using a system of molecularly-based operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that are named in a standardized way.  While this is an interesting and appealing idea, it comes with its own problems.  I think that it is important for everyone to recognize the problems with the current system, but I cannot say I'm on board with any particular alternative.  We'll see how much traction this gets in years to come!

-Brendan