April, 2000 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 12 
contact point and information transfer medium 
for those dealing with biological databases. An 
interesting and useful item. You can also log on 
to the NBII website and find much the same 
content. 
WWW.nbii.gov 
SO THAT’S HOW... 
Among SCAMIT’s membership are several 
individuals who have already crossed over one 
particular Rubicon, describing a new taxon. 
Each has approached the task in their own 
fashion, using the work of a predecessor as a 
model to emulate. Winston (1999) has now 
produced a way for all descriptive activity to 
be approached by fully prepared taxonomists. 
All they have to do is read and digest her book. 
She managed to produce a work of over 500 
pages dealing with the description of new 
biological taxa, and not by padding. It is quite 
thorough, examining all aspects of the process, 
providing both a practical and theoretical basis 
for anyone to use in preparing a new taxon 
description. 
Although most attention is paid to species, 
higher levels and the concerns peculiar to 
erection of new taxa above species, are also 
addressed. The author uses numerous examples 
throughout the text, usually providing several 
for each topic considered so a range of 
solutions is offered for each problem. She 
considers the entire process, from first 
suspicion that an animal may be new, 
verification that it is, analyzing material, 
handling literature, applying nomenclatural 
codes, and preparing a verbal and pictorial 
description of the organism concerned, to 
getting published. Along the way she deals 
with a series of topics pertinent to any 
practicing taxonomist. 
The book is recommended to all SCAMIT 
members as a fine summary of how to go about 
their work, whether they are considering 
description of new species or not. It is 
accessibly and engagingly written, and 
logically laid out. Emphasis is on traditional 
morphological systematics, but cladistic and 
molecular methods are discussed, and the 
reader is pointed to sources for more complete 
discussion of these evolving disciplines. At $65 
you will have to give more than pin money for 
the book, but it is a worthwhile investment. 
Also in paperback at $35 from Columbia 
University Press at, 
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/ 
idx_lists.html 
or from bookshops, or from on-line book 
purveyors (at last check it was back-ordered on 
Amazon.com). My favorable impression seems 
to be echoed elsewhere; the book was released 
last October, and is already in a second 
printing. [Thanks to Tom Parker for loaning me 
his copy to examine; he’s the first person on 
my block to have one]. 
NEW LITERATURE 
Valdes & Gosliner (1999) use morphological 
data in an analysis of the relationships of the 
radula-less dorids; traditionally treated together 
as the Porostomata. Since porostome species 
seem so unlike in other respects, there have 
been misgivings about the group since its 
establishment by Bergh at the end of the 19 th 
century. The current analysis shows such 
concerns to be unfounded It indicates loss of 
the radula has occurred only once among the 
dorids, and all radula-less dorids form a 
monophyletic group. Discovery of a new 
species with a dorsal gill-plume but lacking a 
radula, allowed resolution of the difficulties in 
earlier analyses. This animal (Mandelia 
microcornata ), placed in a new family 
(Mandeliidae), is the sister taxon to the rest of 
the radula-less dorids. 
The major finding of the authors is, however, 
that this monophyletic group lies within the 
cryptobranchiate dorids, rather than outside 
them. They retain Porostomata, for the present, 
as equal to and outside Cryptobranchia, 
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