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A study by the University of Oxford and the Royal Botanic Edinburgh Garden found confusion over the naming and identification of many of the 1.8 million species of plants and animals on Earth. Up to 50% of specimens in natural history museums could be misidentified. The researchers suggest digitizing and DNA sequencing all samples to bring order to taxonomy.
There are 1.8 million different species of plants and animals on Earth. Around 350,000 are flowering plants and around 950,000 are insects, but those numbers can be deceiving and there is a lot of confusion over the naming and identification of many of those species, according to a study by researchers at the University of Oxford and the Royal Botanic Edinburgh Garden. Research in 2015 found that up to 50 percent of all specimens in the world’s natural history museums could be misidentified.
Taxonomy goes crazy:
For example, researchers studied 4,500 specimens of the African ginger genus Aframomum and found that 58% had been misidentified, given redundant or obsolete names, or identified only by genus or family.
“Without precise names on the specimens, documents held in collections around the world are meaningless,” explains Dr. Robert Scotland of the Oxford Department of Plant Sciences.
To correct the widespread problems, the researchers suggest that all samples should be digitized and DNA sequenced, to try to bring order to the taxonomy of the species.
