Let me tell you ‘bout the birds and the bee-mimicking flies and Bambiraptor

Abstract

Scientists have been arguing for more than twenty-five years about whether it is a good idea to collect voucher specimens from particularly vulnerable biological populations. Some think that, obviously, scientists should not be harvesting (read: killing) organisms from, for instance, critically endangered species. Others think that, obviously, it is the special job of scientists to collect precisely such information before any chance of retrieving it is forever lost. The character, extent, longevity, and span of the ongoing disagreement indicates that this is likely to be a hard problem to solve. Nonetheless, the aim of this paper is to help field biologists figure out what do to when collecting a voucher specimen risks extinction. Here I present and assess varying practices of specimen collection for both extant (i.e., neontological) and extinct (i.e., paleontological) species in order to compare and contrast cases where extinction risk both is and is not a problem. When it comes to taking vouchers from extant species at some risk of extinction, I determine that those advocating for conservative approaches to collection as well as those advocating for liberal information-gathering practices have good reasons to assess things in the way they each do. This means that there is unlikely to be a decisive, one-size-fits-all response to this problem. Still, progress can be made. We can acknowledge the risks of proceeding in either manner, as well as the uncertainty about how best to proceed (which will be deep in some cases). We can proceed as thoughtfully as possible, and be ready to articulate a rationale for whichever procedure is used in any particular case.

Understanding scientific types: holotypes, stratotypes, and measurement prototypes

“…In addition to providing this definition, I have outlined a novel Duhemian philosophy of scientific types and demonstrated the fertility of this framework for a number of debates: the necessity-contingency debate in biology, the absolute accuracy of standards debate in metrology, and the definition-correlation debate in geology. There are other important philosophical debates about types to explore within each of these subfields, such as the ethical debate in biology about whether type specimens should be collected for vulnerable species (Havstad 2019). By offering a general definition and theory of types, I hope to provide a foundation for further philosophical work in this area.…”

Paleobiology and philosophy

“…In particular, if a species is already critically endangered, should you have to kill some individuals-further endangering the species-in order to scientifically identify it? Havstad identifies a "particularly sharp divide within museum scientists" (Havstad 2019), roughly those with conservation biology as an aim, and those more aligned with collections.…”

“…The implication, I take it, is that resolving the debate within zoology requires understanding how that norm interacts with the risks of extinction: how can we reconcile the epistemic norm with the high stakes? Havstad doesn't think there is an easy answer here, "there are good scientific reasons to say both that voucher specimens should and that voucher specimens should not be collected in these difficult and fraught cases" (Havstad 2019).…”