DNA barcoding and the mediocrity of morphology
DNA barcoding and the mediocrity of morphology
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02631.x
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发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Hanner, Robert
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Packer, Laurence;Gibbs, Jason;Hanner, Robert
一小群直言不讳的批评者质疑DNA条形码的认识论价值，他们认为，DNA条形码要么不能识别或发现物种，要么忽视了传统方法固有的丰富性。我们通过比较DNA条形码和形态分类法的准确性和所用字符的多样性来重新检验这些论点。我们的结论是，形态学通常不起作用，而且它往往远不像人们所说的那样“丰富”。在许多重要情况下，形态特别差，例如幼虫与成虫的联系以及隐蔽物种之间的歧视。一些批评的激烈程度令人惊讶，因为在许多情况下，仅靠形态学是不足以完成物种水平鉴定的任务的。
A small but vocal community of critics has questioned the epistemological value of DNA barcoding by suggesting that either it 'cannot work' for the identification or discovery of species or that it ignores the 'richness' inherent in traditional approaches. We re-examine these arguments through a comparison of DNA barcoding and morphological taxonomy in terms of their accuracy and diversity of characters employed. We conclude that morphology often does not work and that it is often nowhere near as 'rich' as has been argued. Morphology is particularly poor in numerous important situations, such as the association of larvae with adults and discrimination among cryptic species. The vehemence of some of the criticisms is surprising given that morphology alone is known to be inadequate to the task of species-level identification in many instances.