Comments on: Episode 987: Cabinets – A Taxonomic Soap Opera. http://www.hyam.net/blog/archives/668 "truly pathetic verbiage" Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:12:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Bob Morris http://www.hyam.net/blog/archives/668/comment-page-1#comment-2241 Bob Morris Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:49:36 +0000 http://www.hyam.net/blog/?p=668#comment-2241 Tee, hee. Tee, hee.

]]> By: Matt http://www.hyam.net/blog/archives/668/comment-page-1#comment-2037 Matt Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:25:26 +0000 http://www.hyam.net/blog/?p=668#comment-2037 Fun! I couldn't help it... erase if you will. -- Epilogue * -- - After the surprise wears off Tina just happens to be in Eric's building. What the heck she says, I'll stop in and see how Eric is doing. Eric is happy to see her, and they get to talking about Erics results. - <strong>Tina:</strong> Your new approach is kinda crazy, what did you actually find? <strong>Eric:</strong> Well, genus X and y were a little small and we didn't get a significant result, but we got our new-whiz-bang system all worked out (mumbles something about taxonomy), and we moved it up to a bigger system, family Q. <strong>Tina:</strong> I love family Q, did a little work on them for my graduate studies! <strong>Eric:</strong> Cool. So anyways, we subsampled Q based on morphospecies characters that our lab defined, and found around 100. Of those 100 our study needed 40 individuals, 20 each from two widely separated sites, and for each of those individuals we ran some REALLY EXPENSIVE quantifications and had our undergraduates do A TON OF MEASUREMENTS. Curious thing was our genetic results said there were only 30 species, sorta a reverse-cryptic species complex! Wish we could have somehow detected that earlier and not had to go to that extra effort. Anyways, our results are awesome, should be in Science any day now. <strong>Tina:</strong> That's great, do you have some vouchers I could check out? I've always liked genus Q. <strong>Eric:</strong> Sure, they're right over here, in nicely barcoded vials. - Tina settles in for the afternoon to take a look at the specimens, at least he kept vouchers she thinks. Before she gets settled Malcom runs in and after some hushed conversations leaves with Eric - Later that afteroon Eric returns. Tina has a smug grin on her face. <strong>Tina:</strong> So how much did this cost you Eric? <strong>Eric:</strong> Boatloads! Completely drained my latest grant. <strong>Tina:</strong> That's too bad. You know that genus Q is sexually dimorphic in most species right, and that some species are polymorphic in size? My taxonomist friend Rick did an a monograph on Q and pointed it all out. <strong>Eric: </strong>Rick? Monograph? <strong>Tina:</strong> Sure, turns out you really only had 20 morphospecies to start with, I sorted them for you. Most of the males and females could be associated based on this cool little character system right..... here and these all belong to Rick's species foo, which is known to be highly size polymorphic from rearing experiments. <strong>Eric:</strong> (turning a little pale) 20? - Stay tuned to find out what Eric and Malcom were talking about, and whether Tina finally find laboratory love - * Morphospecies calculations based on a true story. Fun! I couldn’t help it… erase if you will.

– Epilogue * –

- After the surprise wears off Tina just happens to be in Eric’s building. What the heck she says, I’ll stop in and see how Eric is doing. Eric is happy to see her, and they get to talking about Erics results. -

Tina: Your new approach is kinda crazy, what did you actually find?

Eric: Well, genus X and y were a little small and we didn’t get a significant result, but we got our new-whiz-bang system all worked out (mumbles something about taxonomy), and we moved it up to a bigger system, family Q.

Tina: I love family Q, did a little work on them for my graduate studies!

Eric: Cool. So anyways, we subsampled Q based on morphospecies characters that our lab defined, and found around 100. Of those 100 our study needed 40 individuals, 20 each from two widely separated sites, and for each of those individuals we ran some REALLY EXPENSIVE quantifications and had our undergraduates do A TON OF MEASUREMENTS. Curious thing was our genetic results said there were only 30 species, sorta a reverse-cryptic species complex! Wish we could have somehow detected that earlier and not had to go to that extra effort. Anyways, our results are awesome, should be in Science any day now.

Tina: That’s great, do you have some vouchers I could check out? I’ve always liked genus Q.

Eric: Sure, they’re right over here, in nicely barcoded vials.

- Tina settles in for the afternoon to take a look at the specimens, at least he kept vouchers she thinks. Before she gets settled Malcom runs in and after some hushed conversations leaves with Eric -

Later that afteroon Eric returns. Tina has a smug grin on her face.

Tina: So how much did this cost you Eric?

Eric: Boatloads! Completely drained my latest grant.

Tina: That’s too bad. You know that genus Q is sexually dimorphic in most species right, and that some species are polymorphic in size? My taxonomist friend Rick did an a monograph on Q and pointed it all out.

Eric: Rick? Monograph?

Tina: Sure, turns out you really only had 20 morphospecies to start with, I sorted them for you. Most of the males and females could be associated based on this cool little character system right….. here and these all belong to Rick’s species foo, which is known to be highly size polymorphic from rearing experiments.

Eric: (turning a little pale) 20?

- Stay tuned to find out what Eric and Malcom were talking about, and whether Tina finally find laboratory love -

* Morphospecies calculations based on a true story.

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