Title
Comment on 'Wetzeliella and its allies - the 'hole' story: a taxonomic revision of the Paleogene dinoflagellate subfamily Wetzelielloidae' by Williams et al. (2015)
Author
Bijl, P.K.
Brinkhuis, H.
Egger, L.M.
Eldrett, J.S.
Frieling, J.
Grothe, A.
Houben, A.J.P.
Pross, J.
Sliwinska, K.K.
Sluijs, A.
Publication year
2017
Abstract
The taxonomic revision of the dinoflagellate cyst subfamily Wetzelielloideae by Williams et al. (2015) places primary emphasis on the type of archaeopyle, and secondarily on wall ornamentation. Williams et al. (2015) argues that this provides more clarity for taxonomic differentiation within the subfamily of Wetzelielloideae, and adds to the stratigraphical significance of species within. We find, however, that their proposed revision (1) introduces taxonomic criteria that divert drastically from these in other dinoflagellate cyst subfamilies, (2) unnecessarily erects and emends many new genera and species, and (3) poses serious practical limitations, which together (4) lead to profound reduction of the stratigraphical applicability of many marker species. In this contribution, we substantiate our concerns regarding the approach and criteria used by Williams et al. (2015). We propose to retain the generic definitions of Wetzelielloideae that existed prior to the revisions by Williams et al. (2015), until a revision supported by the community is available
Subject
Comment
Taxonomic revision
Dinoflagellate cyst
Wetzelielloideae
Stratigraphy
Geological Survey Netherlands
2015 Energy
2017 Geo
AG - Applied Geosciences
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3e915edf-3bc9-40cd-862e-f26a65fab096
TNO identifier
779724
Source
Palynology, 41 (41), 423-429
Document type
article