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What's in a name? Taxonomic and gender biases in the etymology of new species names - PubMed

  • ️Sat Jan 01 2022

What's in a name? Taxonomic and gender biases in the etymology of new species names

Robert Poulin et al. Proc Biol Sci. 2022.

Abstract

As our inventory of Earth's biodiversity progresses, the number of species given a Latin binomial name is also growing. While the coining of species names is bound by rules, the sources of inspiration used by taxonomists are an eclectic mix. We investigated naming trends for nearly 2900 new species of parasitic helminths described in the past two decades. Our analysis indicates that the likelihood of new species being given names that convey some information about them (name derived from morphology, host or locality of origin) or not (named after an eminent scientist, or for something else) depends on the higher taxonomic group to which the parasite or its host belongs. We also found a consistent gender bias among species named after eminent scientists, with male scientists being immortalized disproportionately more frequently than female scientists. Finally, we found that the tendency for taxonomists to name new species after a family member or close friend has increased over the past 20 years. We end by offering suggestions for future species naming, aimed at honouring the scientific community's diversity and avoiding etymological nepotism and cronyism, while still allowing for creativity in crafting new Latin species names.

Keywords: biodiversity; etymology; nomenclature; parasites; species description; taxonomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare we have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Usage frequency of the five main etymological categories for parasite species names among helminth taxa (top row) and host taxa (bottom row). Those that convey information about the parasite (name derived from its morphology, its host, or its locality of origin) are in blue colours, and those that do not (named after an eminent scientist, or for something else) in yellow-orange colours. The numbers of parasite species for each taxonomic group in our dataset are also shown. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 2.
Figure 2.

Number of parasite species named after an eminent scientist, shown separately for male and female eminent scientists, in the years 2000 to 2020. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 3.
Figure 3.

Percentage of parasite species named after a mentor, close friend or family member of the authors of the species description, as a function of the year in which the descriptions were published. The shaded area represents the 95% confidence interval around the line of best-fit. Note: the data include only the 528 parasite species named for something other than their morphology, their host, their location of origin, or an eminent scientist. (Online version in colour.)

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