Straightening 3-D Surface Scans of Curved Natural History Specimens for Taxonomic Research

Being able to quickly find and access original species descriptions is essential for efficiently conducting taxonomic research. Linking scientific name queries to the original species description is challenging and requires taxonomic intelligence because on average there are an estimated three scientific names associated with each currently accepted species, and many historical scientific names have fallen into disuse from being synonymized or forgotten. Additionally, non-standard usage of journal abbreviations can make it difficult to automatically disambiguate bibliographic citations and ascribe them to the correct publication. The largest open access resource for biodiversity literature is the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), which was built by a consortium of natural history institutions and contains over 200,000 digitized volumes of natural history publications spanning hundreds of years of biological research. Catalogue of Life (CoL) is the largest aggregator of scientific names globally, publishing an annual checklist of currently accepted scientific names and their historical synonyms. TaxonWorks is an integrative web-based workbench that facilitates collaboration on biodiversity informatics research between scientists and developers. The Global Names project has been collaborating with BHL, TaxonWorks, and CoL to develop a Global Names Index that links all of these services together by finding scientific names in BHL and using the taxonomic intelligence provided by CoL to conveniently link directly to the page referenced in BHL. The Global Names Index is continuously updated as metadata is improved and digitization technologies advance to provide more accurate optical character recognition (OCR) of scanned texts. We developed an open source tool, “BHLnames,” and launched a restful application programming interface (API) service with a freely available Javascript widget that can be embedded on any website to link scientific names to literature citations in BHL. If no bibliographic citation is provided, the widget will link to the oldest name usage in BHL, which often is the original species description. The BHLnames widget can also be used to browse all mentions of a scientific name and its synonyms in BHL, which could make the tool more broadly useful for studying the natural history of any species.

Download Full-text

The taxonomic research of Jules Richard on Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) and his collection at the National Museum of Natural History, USA

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.2551.1.2 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2551 (1) ◽

pp. 37 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

ALEXEY A. KOTOV ◽

FRANK D. FERRARI

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

New Taxa ◽

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Junior Synonym ◽

National Museum ◽

Taxonomic Research ◽

Daphnia Curvirostris

Jules Richard (1863-1945) contributed significantly to cladoceran taxonomy before he became Director of the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco and assistant to Prince Albert I-er de Monaco. His collection, including slides and samples preserved in ethanol, was purchased by E. A. Birge, subsequently incorporated into the collection of David G. Frey, and later gifted to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. A list of publications of Richard about cladocerans is presented, as well a list of all new taxa described by him (three genera and 37 taxa of species rank), with information about type localities, synonymies and taxonomic comments. Lectotypes and in some cases paralectotypes are selected for Daphnia (Ctenodaphnia) bolivari Richard, 1888; D. (Daphnia) curvirostris insulana Moniez in Richard, 1896; Bosmina japonica Poppe & Richard, 1890; Grimaldina brazzai Richard, 1892 and Alona sarsi Richard, 1891. Syntypes exist for Alona moniezi Richard, 1888 and Pleuroxus letourneuxi (Richard, 1888). The ethanol samples of Richard that may contain species for which there are no types are discussed. In addition, samples in the collection of David G. Frey from type localities of Richard's species are noted. These samples could be important for future revisions of the Richard's taxa. A redescription of Pleuroxus letourneuxi (Chydoridae, Chydorinae) is given; Bosmina japonica Poppe & Richard, 1890 (Bosminidae), a junior synonym of B. longirostris (O. F. Muller, 1776), also is redescribed.

Download Full-text

How is the moral stance related to the intentional stance and group thinking?

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19002413 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

Author(s):

Hannes Rakoczy

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Intentional Stance ◽

Cognitive Capacities ◽

Shared Intentionality ◽

History Of ◽

Group Thinking ◽

Moral Stance

Abstract The natural history of our moral stance told here in this commentary reveals the close nexus of morality and basic social-cognitive capacities. Big mysteries about morality thus transform into smaller and more manageable ones. Here, I raise questions regarding the conceptual, ontogenetic, and evolutionary relations of the moral stance to the intentional and group stances and to shared intentionality.

Download Full-text

On the assembly and structural modulation of lens fiber junctions

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100110805 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 110-113

Author(s):

E.L. Benedetti ◽

I. Dunia ◽

Do Ngoc Lien ◽

O. Vallon ◽

D. Louvard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Weight ◽

Natural History ◽

Intercellular Junctions ◽

Eye Lens ◽

Membrane Domains ◽

Functional Polymorphism ◽

Lens Fiber ◽

The Past ◽

Structural Modulation ◽

Biochemical Difference

In the eye lens emerging molecular and structural patterns apparently cohabit with the remnants of the past. The lens in a rather puzzling fashion sums up its own natural history and even transient steps of the differentiation are memorized. A prototype of this situation is well outlined by the study of the lenticular intercellular junctions. These membrane domains exhibit structural, biochemical and perhaps functional polymorphism reflecting throughout life the multiple steps of the differentiation of the epithelium into fibers and of the ageing process of the lenticular cells.The most striking biochemical difference between the membrane derived from the epithelium and from the fibers respectively, concerns the presence of the 26,000 molecular weight polypeptide (MP26) in the latter membranes.

Download Full-text