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Publications (90)
Thirteen examples mainly taken from ciliatology illustrate the increasing work load of serious taxonomists interested in the reliability of nomenclatural information and trying to be Code-compliant. Weaknesses of the “Amendment” of five articles to expand methods of publication of the Code resulted in the increasing vagueness of dating a nomen (and...
Modern advances in DNA sequencing hold the promise of facilitating descriptions of new organisms at ever finer precision but have come with challenges as the major Codes of bionomenclature contain poorly defined requirements for species and subspecies diagnoses (henceforth, species diagnoses), which is particularly problematic for DNA-based taxonom...
This sixth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to the result of the enquiry launched by this Committee in 2021 about the status of new nomina and nomenclatural acts published so far on CD-ROMs. After a discussion of some problems of interpretation raised by Articles 8.4.2, 8.1.2 and 9.12 of the Code, we provide information...
This fourth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published on paper, concerning their dates, material and administrative parameters of publication, and various other matters. It proposes a few chang...
This fifth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code, published in 2012, regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published online and registered on the database Zoobank. It points to various deficiencies in these Rules and in the conception an...
This fourth report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee is devoted to a detailed survey of the problems raised by the current Rules of the Code regarding the nomenclatural availability of works published on paper, concerning their dates, material and administrative parameters of publication, and various other matters. It proposes a few chang...
This third report of activities of the Linz Zoocode Committee provides comments and proposals regarding the concepts, terminology and Rules used to establish the nomenclatural availability of publications, whatever their support and mode of distribution (on paper, on discs or electronic).
According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and
2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...
According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and 2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...
According to the Code currently in force, taxonomic works presenting nomenclatural novelties published on optical discs may be nomenclaturally available only if published between 1985 and 2013, and respecting some conditions allowing their nomenclatural promulgation. These works will remain accessible to readers only as long as the technologies all...
In July 2014, the international meeting ‘Burning questions and problems of zoological nomenclature’ was held in Linz (Austria). It acknowledged the presence in the current International Code of Zoological Nomenclature of a number of severe problems, and accordingly decided the creation of a new international body, the Linz Zoocode Committee (LZC),...
Sessions 15–38 of the Linz Zoocode Committee (May 2017 – October 2019). 1–2
LZC Session 15. Preamble of the Zoocode: purposes and functions. 3–5
LZC Session 16. What is the meaning of ‘fixed content and layout’ in Article 8.1.3.2 of the 2012 Amendment of the Code? Consequences regarding this Amendment. 6–34
LZC Session 17. The Principles of the Zoo...
Austria takes a special status in the international research on ciliates. Wilhelm Foissner, one of the most experienced and productive taxonomists, and his working group made Austria to a hotspot of ciliate-diversity research (Aescht & Berger 2008a, b, Aescht 2008, Berger & Al-Rasheid 2008).
In addition, a natural monument (“Krauthügel”) expressly...
Recent advances in molecular technology have revolutionized research on allaspects of the biology of organisms, including ciliates, and created unprecedented opportunities for pursuing a more integrative approach to investigationsof biodiversity. However, this goal is complicated by large gaps and inconsistencies that still exist in the foundation...
Recent advances in molecular technology have revolutionized research on all aspects of the biology of organisms, including ciliates, and created unprecedented opportunities for pursuing a more integrative approach to investigation of biodiversity. However, this goal is complicated by large gaps and inconsistencies that still exist in the foundation...
The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...
This plot is not part of the published stance but derives from it. The plot shows the number of authors by geographic region (courtesy of Dr. Diego Astua).
This paper reports about the international meeting on zoological nomenclature held in Linz (Austria) in July 2014, and which resulted in the foundation of the Linz Zoocode Committee.
This paper reports about the composition, purposes and general functioning of the Linz Zoocode Committee established in Linz (Austria) in July 2014.
This series of papers report in details about the work and decisions of the Linz Zoocode Committee (LZC) in its Sessions 1–6:
1. Procedure proposed for the internal functioning of the LZC.
2. Nomenclatural problems with electronic publications.
3. The term nomen.
4. The structure of the Zoocode.
5. The nomenclatural process.
6. Proposal AVA-01. Obs...
Morphologie und Systematik, vor allem jene der kleinen wirbellosen Tiere („Evertebraten“) und der einzelligen Eukaryoten („Protozoen“), sind keine abgeschlossenen Disziplinen der Zoologie, sondern höchst lebendige, forschungsbedürftige Arbeitsgebiete. Die Bestimmung (unter anderem notwendig für ökologische und phylogenetische Untersuchungen) erford...
Since ciliates rarely possess structures that easily fossilize, we are limited in our ability to use paleontological studies to reconstruct the early evolution of this large and ecologically important clade of protists. Tintinnids, a group of loricate (house-forming) planktonic ciliates, are the only group that has a significant fossil record. Puta...
In zoological nomenclature, to be potentially valid, nomenclatural novelties (i.e., new nomina and nomenclatural acts) need first to be made available, that is, published in works qualifying as publications as defined by the International Code of zoological Nomenclature (“the Code”). In September 2012, the Code was amended in order to allow the rec...
Can we describe all species on Earth before they disappear? We argue that this is possible only by endowing taxonomy with professional manpower and appropriate material resources as required by big science.
Contrary to Costello et al.’s (CMS) statements, taxonomy is not an easy discipline accessible to all through a smartphone. It requires exhausti...
Can we describe all species on Earth before they disappear? We argue that this is possible only by endowing taxonomy with professional manpower and appropriate material resources as required by big science. Contrary to Costello et al.’s (CMS) statements, taxonomy is not an easy discipline accessible to all through a smartphone. It requires exhausti...
The initiative resulting in a revived Draft BioCode (DBC) is highly welcomed, to a lesser extent the acontextual, ahistorical and disembodied presentation of the latter. Examples from ciliatology show that we not only face a taxonomic gap combined with a biodiversity crisis but also a “nomenclature awareness” gap. Because of many discrepancies betw...
Morphologie und Systematik, vor allem jene der kleinen wirbellosen Tiere („Evertebraten“) und der einzelligen Eukaryoten („Protozoen“),
sind keine abgeschlossenen Disziplinen der Zoologie, sondern höchst lebendige, forschungsbedürftige Arbeitsgebiete. Die Bestimmung
(unter anderem notwendig für ökologische und phylogenetische Untersuchungen) erford...
New zoological records in Upper Austria (1993–2002). 691 animals have been recorded in Upper Austria for the first time in the last ten years. 258 records refer to protozoa, 240 to diverse invertebrates, viz. sponges, annelids, bryozoans, molluscs, crustaceans, and arachnids, 174 to insects, and 19 to vertebrates. Beside the species name, the origi...
Cortical development during cell division of Blepharisma americanum Suzuki, 1954, B. undulans Stein, 1867, and B. hyalinum Perty, 1849 was investigated using protargol impregnation and scanning electron microscopy. Stomatogenesis usually commences in a postoral kinety. Depending on species, 0-3 neighbouring kineties are involved in the anarchic fie...
The ciliated protozoa occurring in two sewage treatment plants (Ästen near Linz and Offenhausen near Wels, Upper Austria) were investigated by means of life observation, protargol impregnation and morphometrical analysis. Fifty taxa have been found, six of them are new for the activated sludge. From the sewage treatment plant Ästen near Linz seven...
Large branchiopods in the collection "Evertebrata varia" of the OÖ. Landesmuseum (Linz, Austria)
Specimens of 13 out of 16 large branchiopod species documented in Austria have been deposited in the collection "Evertebrata varia" of the OÖ. Landesmuseum (= LI). Triops cancriformis and Leptestheria dahalacensis collected in 1940 and 1948 near the vi...
The microfauna consists of eukaryotic, single-celled protozoans (naked and testate amoebae, flagellates, ciliates) and multicellular organisms (rotifers, tardigrades, nematodes) too small to be studied and identified without the help of a microscope.
The Weighted Coenotic Index (WCI) is a single value that unifies total abundance, dominance structure, species richness and ecological weightings, e.g., habitat preferences and positions of species in the r/K continuum. Studies with simulated species assemblages have shown that ecological weightings and dominance structure are major components of t...
Protozoa (testate amoebae, ciliates), small metazoa (rotifers, nematodes), and soil enzymes (catalase, cellulase) were investigated in a reafforested fertilized site at the alpine timberline. Side-dressings of mineral and organic fertilizers were applied alone (90 g NPK; 90, 180, 300, and 450 g dried bacterial biomass per spruce seedling) and in co...
Ultrastructural features of Grossglockneria acutaFoissner, 1980 are very similar to those known in the confamilial species, Pseudoplatyophrya nana. The somatic infraciliature corresponds to the typical colpodid dikinetid pattern. The peculiar oral apparatus is described in detail. The feeding tube contains about 17 concentric cytostomial microtubul...
Es wird die morphologische und morphogenetische Variabilität des hypotrichen Ciliaten Engelmanniella mobilis (Engelmann, 1862) Foissner, 1982 untersucht. Die aus dem Boden isolierten Populationen stammen aus Österreich (Bn, Gn), der Türkei (Tn) und aus Japan (Jn). Sie bilden hinsichtlich einiger quantitativer Merkmale der Infraciliatur, der Morphol...
Avestina ludwigi has been found exclusively in freshly sampled spruce forest litter, where it is often eudominant. This small, flattened ciliate may live in very acidic environments (pH 2.4) and apparently prefers comparatively dry soils. Avestina belongs to the family Hausmanniellidae (order Colpodida) and includes two species, A. acuta and A. lud...
The morphogenetic pattern, freeze-fracture, transmission, and scanning electron-microscopy of interphasic cells were used to elucidate the enigmatic systematic position of Engelmanniella mobilis. Frontal, buccal, parabuccal, and marginal cirri are distinguishable during cortical development; transverse, frontoterminal (migratory), and caudal cirri...
