Reply to “Attempts to introduce a system of national, racial and/or ethnocultural discrimination in codes of biological nomenclature should not be tolerated: Comments on some recent proposals (Wright & Gillman, 2022, etc.)”

Abstract

AbstractSergei Mosyakin in a publication in this journal (Mosyakin, 2022) criticises our proposal (Gillman & Wright, 2020; Wright & Gillman, 2021) to introduce a system that would facilitate recognition of indigenous plant names. In particular, he contends that the proposal is discriminatory on the basis of race. We certainly do not think it would introduce such discrimination. The concept of a revised system based on chronological precedence does not in our view favour any race or ethnic grouping since it merely attributes priority for the name on the basis of temporal sequence. Our system could be used to justify priority by any people as long as it could be shown that it was the first name to apply to a particular species. It is thus dependent on the evidence relating to when a name was first used, not by whom it was first used. We also reiterate that the proposal would not usurp the science of taxonomy nor remove credit from the relevant authority.