OSUC Database Structure: Taxonomy Cluster
Names are the means by which we communicate with one another about
entities. The goal of the various codes of nomenclature is to produce a
system in which each taxon has a unique and stable name. In such an
ideal world, names would correspond exactly with the intellectual
entities that we call taxa. We are far from such an ideal. Our
concepts of what constitutes and defines taxa change and develop through
time. The names that are associated with these concepts also change.
The tables of the taxonomy cluster should be able to deal with these
changes, to identify all of the names by which a taxonomic concept has
been known, to separate the valid from the invalid names, to allow for
homonyms, synonyms, and the like.
Tables in Taxonomy Cluster
Last updated: 20 November, 1997 by nfj.