Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Change in biological nomenclature is overdue and possible

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 7, pages 1166–1167 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Guedes and colleagues1 note the growing dissonance between, on the one hand, historical and current practices in the scientific naming of biological organisms and, on the other, efforts to acknowledge and address prevalent shortcomings. As with others2,3, they argue for a more-inclusive, equitable and diverse nomenclatural practice that — as part of our work in science — we are mandated to uphold even by our granting agencies (for example, the ‘Tri-Agency EDI Action Plan 2018–2025’). These arguments are not rhetorical attempts to politicize science. Instead, they reflect an increasingly urgent call for structured change2,3,4,5 — despite attempts6 to pre-emptively stifle the discussion by invoking immutable principles of scientific nomenclature that have served to pit existing practice against ethics. We agree with Guedes and colleagues1 about the need to change, and support their intention to find a solution. However, we propose a slightly different model — one that rests on more flexible and more inclusive scientific-naming structures.

Naming is a special linguistic process through which a psychosocially acceptable form is chosen that both reflects the cultural values of the speech community and has a semantic (descriptive, historic and fictional) meaning. Names are not, and have never been, value-neutral: they have an important role in the culture of their speakers. Therefore, the scientific names of biological organisms have clear repercussions for how we perceive a landscape and its inhabitants, including the ways in which we communicate about biodiversity and practice environmental management1,7. The retention of offensive names in biological nomenclature has also recently been criticized for failing to take local knowledge into account. Unfortunately, names that carry, for example, colonial legacies may over time invoke discomfort — even pain — in communities that have traditionally been marginalized or exploited. This pain must not be perpetuated in the name of scientific traditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Guedes, P. et al. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02022-y (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Berenbaum, M. Am. Entomol. 56, 132–185 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Heard, S. B. Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider (Yale Univ. Press, 2020).

  4. Hammer, T. A. & Thiele, K. R. Taxon 70, 1392–1394 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Smith, G. F. & Figueiredo, E. Taxon 71, 1–5 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Ceríaco, L. M. P. et al. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 197, 283–286 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. DuBay, S., Palmer Droguett, D. H. & Piland, N. C. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.09.243238 (2020).

  8. Roksandic, M., Radović, P., Wu, X. J. & Bae, C. J. Evol. Anthropol. 31, 240–244 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bae, C. J. et al. Zool. J. Linn. Soc., https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad061 (in the press).

  10. Figueiredo, E. et al. Zool. J. Linn. Soc., https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad056 (in the press).

  11. Talbot, C. Taxonomy. namely offensive. The Economist, 77–78 (24 September 2022).

  12. Ride, W. D. L. et al. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, The Natural History Museum, 1999).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Mirjana Roksandic, Predrag Radović, Joshua Lindal & Ivan Roksandic

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Mirjana Roksandic & Joshua Lindal

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Charles Musiba

  4. Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Predrag Radović

  5. National Museum Kraljevo, Kraljevo, Serbia

    Predrag Radović

  6. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xiu-Jie Wu

  7. Ria Olivier Herbarium, Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa

    Estrela Figueiredo & Gideon F. Smith

  8. Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Christopher J. Bae

Authors
  1. Mirjana Roksandic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charles Musiba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Predrag Radović
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joshua Lindal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Xiu-Jie Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Estrela Figueiredo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Gideon F. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ivan Roksandic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Christopher J. Bae
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mirjana Roksandic or Christopher J. Bae.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Roksandic, M., Musiba, C., Radović, P. et al. Change in biological nomenclature is overdue and possible. Nat Ecol Evol 7, 1166–1167 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02104-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02104-x

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing