The statistic information on radiolarian studies based on PaleoTax for Windows, a synonym database

Abstract

A radiolarian taxonomic database with synonymy relationship was created by PaleoTax for Windows that was developed by Hannes Loser. All the taxonomic names published by March, 2015, have been completely entered, reaching 2,780 genera and 15,040 species. In consideration of taxonomic unavailable names and junior synonyms, a total of 13,590 species are regarded as available names. These available names, however, also include the species impossible to be applied for actual specimens due to lack of illustrations and less-characteristic name-bearing type specimens. Excluded such problematic species, a total of 9,870 species are considered to be practically existing. A total of 2,780 genera were established so far, and 1,450 of 2,780 genera are practically usable. Although this database is unable to be in public due to authorships to the illustrations of the name-bearing specimens, it is useful to subjectively search variable information such as the most cited species names (e.g. Cyrtocapsella tetrapera), very rarely cited names (one or twice) (58%), the number of samples (not localities) in the selected geologic time intervals (e.g. 113 samples in Cambrian and Ordovician), the species diversity changes through the geologic time, and other scientific supports. Users to database, however, must aware of the interpretation and quality of the search results.