Integrative Taxonomy of Birds: The Nature and Delimitation of Species

  • Sangster G
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Abstract

Species are the basic currency in biodiversity studies, but what constitutes a species has long been controversial. Since the late 1990s, debates over species have shifted from theoretical questions (e.g., What is a species? Which species concept is best?) to empirical questions (How can we document species both efficiently and accurately?). A growing number of taxonomists agree that species can be discovered and documented in many different ways, preferably by employing and combining multiple types of evidence (“integrative taxonomy”). This chapter examines how and why avian taxonomy has become integrative, how species hypotheses are documented and falsified, and how the growth of taxonomic knowledge provides new and valuable insights into the speciation process, biogeography, and conserva- tion biology.

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Sangster, G. (2018). Integrative Taxonomy of Birds: The Nature and Delimitation of Species (pp. 9–37). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91689-7_2

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