Flag for Taxon: Parrotfishes (Family Scaridae)
| Flagger | Content Author | Content | Reason | Flag Created | Resolved by | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| joe_fish | Parrotfishes (Family Scaridae) |
this should be treated as part of the Labridae. The subfamily Scarinae was already swapped, but not the family. |
Sep. 1, 2019 23:40:53 +0000 | loarie |
see comments |
Comments
It seems like there's some inconsistency, if the subfamily was swapped into Labridae but the family Scaridae is still treated as valid. Slavish adherence to fishbase is silly given how slow that site is to update. There was a major review of this group published recently which firmly established a subfamilial classification within Labridae, which is something that ichthyologists have mostly been in agreement on for decades now. @loarie
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315118079/chapters/10.1201/9781315118079-3
I don't think "slavish" would be an accurate characterization for iNat's use of any taxonomic authorities. If there is evidence and community buy-in to deviate from any of the taxonomic databases listed in the Curator Guide, then that can be done for sure.
There is a system for that described here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/taxon_frameworks
my main take on this is that creating/maintaining all these deviations from our reference (Fishbase) is a ton of work, so to the extent that you can work with / help Fishbase make these changes it will be much easier on us. FIshbase is actively revising their taxonomy, e.g. they just split off families Gastromyzontidae, Sinipercidae etc.
but if you want to deviate, we have a protocol for that. first thing we would need to know is what happens to:
Family Scaridae
Subfamily Scarinae
Subfamily Sparisomatinae
Are you suggesting all of these get swapped into (and all children moved) to a new Subfamily Scarinae descending from Labridae?
correct, Labridae: Scarinae
Scarini and Sparisomatini seem to have been used, if a tribal classification is desired.
@maractwin do you support this deviation
It's not just fishbase that hasn't yet moved parrotfishes to be within wrasses. Eschmeyer's list hasn't either. Nor recent books published by Gerry Allen. I've been avoiding taking any action on this until I see other sources following this change.
seems sensible to me, I'm also hesitant to make changes at the family level that neither Eschmeyer nor FB have embraced
closing this - lets reopen if any of the sources recognize this change
Just a note that iNat is following FishBase for fish taxonomy, which accepts the family Scaridae: https://www.fishbase.se/Summary/FamilySummary.php?ID=364
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49692/taxonomy_details