12 Comments
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tomeslice
Thank you for sharing this, Chavez!
I also appreciated you challenging the existence of some poorly-recorded species such as Emily’s flying squirrel. I wondered that myself, and I’d have to thrown in Emmon’s tree rat (Pithecheirops otion) into the mix as well, if it hasn’t already been cancelled 🤪-
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Shavez Cheema
I wouldnt cancel the Emmons rat as there is a published paper with a photo indeed. Ofcourse one specimen is not good enough to determine esp with such f ew measurements and angles however knowing the complexities of the Bornean rainforest and how understudied the ecology is , i am not going to cancel this rat or other rats as there is so little research and more to discovered. Hopefully a mammal watching tour will photograph it finally 🙂 (again)
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vnsankar
Great discussion! While I’m inclined to agree with the skepticism in Shavez’s text on stuff like Petaurillus emiliae and Bornean records of Pteromyscus, Pithecheirops otion is 100% real to me. There’s a great photo from the description published in the 90s and it looks nothing like anything else on Borneo, certainly not an aberrant form of an existing species. Ecologically a Pithecheir group species on Borneo makes sense too given their presence in Sumatra, Java, and Peninsular Malaysia. Tree rats can be bloody hard to find even if you’re walking around a ton at night with a thermal scope (which nobody does in Danum) – just look at the similarly super distinctive Santamartamys in Colombia from a very well studied area. And who knows what its habitat preferences are, with one specimen. I find tree rats can be very specific to specific microhabitats, and most species in the Neotropics have few records for the above reasons. Honestly I really want to look for this one!
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tomeslice
Interesting insight, Venkat!
I definitely trust your knowledge and understanding of rodents – it’s embarrassing how much mine pales in comparison. So if you truly believe this species despite the 1-ever-record, then I’ll take your word for it.
When I saw its illustration in the Phillipps field guide I totally thought it looked like a deformed individual of another species.. but again – if you are sure about it then I’ll go with your instinct and understanding.
BTW, if one discovers a species, it’s often named after them. However, how do you get credit for cancelling a species? ;-P-
vnsankar
Haha. Thanks Tomer. Adding my thoughts here, but since I’m not a taxonomist I can’t say this explanation is free from errors and I’m welcome to be corrected! ‘Canceling’ a species like you mentioned above (if say, Petaurillus emiliae turns out to be the same as P. hosei) is an interesting process – generally, the “fake” species just becomes a synonym of the “real” one and no one references that name anymore, except in formal reference documents on the species it was subsumed into. There, the scientific name would be listed as a synonym of the “real” species. If broadly accepted, the “fake” species would then be scrubbed from checklists etc. There isn’t a clear cut process for someone to take credit here like with describing a species, where you’d list the taxonomic authority (that person who described the species + coined the name – typically not the person whom the species is named after, who is usually someone else they are honoring) after the scientific name. Most examples I can think of where species have been synonymized involve papers focused on taxonomy of a genus (or other sub-generic clade or species group) where the authors typically just ‘cancel’ the species in the discussion by saying that it doesn’t warrant distinction anymore. This paper would then be cited in subsequent checklists and so on.
You also have another case where a taxonomic name becomes invalid since the original specimens no longer exist and thus the description is insufficient for assigning future specimens to the name. This is called a nomen dubium.
Btw here’s the photo of Pithecheirops otion – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/partpdf/45005
Crazy looking thing!
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Daan Drukker
Great stuff Shavez!