Guy M. KirwanNatural History Museum, London · Department of Life Sciences
Guy M. Kirwan
B.A. History and English
About
4,345
Publications
192,498
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Introduction
My research principally focuses on avian geographic variation using museum specimens, integrated with fieldwork in relevant regions, principally the Middle East and South America. Major projects include work on Brazilian and Cuban birds, and a review of avian mysteries.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6876-9452
Publications
Publications (4,345)
We describe the juvenile plumages of the Cinereous Mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra) and the Brazilian Laniisoma (Laniisoma elegans). Both L. hypopyrra and L. elegans possess a dramatically conspicuous plumage as juveniles in contrast to the generally cryptic plumage pattern exhibited by most juvenile birds. They are predominantly covered by cinnamon-o...
Known with certainty solely from a unique male specimen collected in central Brazil in the first quarter of the 19th century, the Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) Hooded Seedeater Sporophila melanops has been one of the great enigmas of Neotropical ornithology, arguably the only one of a host of long-lost species from Brazil to remain
obsti...
We examine notions of taxonomic ‘impediment’, ‘gap’, ‘inflation’ and ‘anarchy’, all of which are increasingly prevalent in discussions of the global biodiversity crisis. Following a critical analysis of the history of those notions, we postulate that the entire issue behind them resides in a deep philosophical deficiency in the general comprehensio...
Responding to purported taxonomic anarchy, in an article published in the widely read journal Nature, Garnett & Christidis (2017) [hereafter GC] opined on the need for “standardized global species lists”, at the behest of conservationists, and proposed the construction of a judicial committee to “restrict … freedom of taxonomic action” and promote...
Multiple molecular phylogenetic studies have demonstrated that two Neotropical raptors, tiny hawk Accipiter superciliosus and its sister species semicollared hawk A. collaris, are not closely related to core Accipiter, and that A. superciliosus, at least, possesses osteological characters not replicated in the remainder of the genus. Based on these...
Questions
Question (1)
I am not a botanist or familiar with the botanical Code ( https://www.iapt-taxon.org/nomen/pages/intro/dates.html), but would like to establish which is the correct spelling of this species of oak found in western Cuba. The OD clearly spells it sagraeana ( https://archive.org/details/cihm_40072/page/n61/mode/2up), but modern Cuban authorities appear to spell it sagrana, while a brief internet search seems to throw up virtually equal numbers of both spellings (wikipedia, for example, spells it sagraeana). Any reason in the botanical Code why the original spelling has been abandoned in favour of sagrana. Thank you!
