Prokaryote Nomenclature Statistics
Nomenclature Project Status
At present, the NamesforLife Database (N4LDB) contains 14,650 distinct names, 13,883 of which are validly published, 119 Candidatus, and 47 that are illegitimate but relevant to the field. N4LDB also contains 14,939 exemplars (metadata representations of species/subspecies/strains), 9,461 of which represent distinct type strains for 11,511 taxa and 11,903 names, the remaining exemplars representing important non-type strains. The remaining 2,747 names are associated with higher taxa. The major classes of events that have occurred since publication of the Approved Lists in 1980, by event, are shown below. Less common events (Judicial Opinions, Revived Names, Rejected Names, Retractions, etc.) are not shown here.
Rank | Taxa | Names |
---|---|---|
Domain | 2 | 2 |
Phylum | 35 | 36 |
Class | 75 | 76 |
Subclass | 7 | 7 |
Order | 133 | 137 |
Suborder | 24 | 25 |
Family | 344 | 349 |
Subfamily | 1 | 1 |
Genus | 2,079 | 2,109 |
Subgenus | 5 | 5 |
Species | 10,980 | 11,333 |
Subspecies | 531 | 570 |
Total | 14,216 | 14,650 |
Event | Count |
---|---|
Corrections | 439 |
New Combinations | 1,270 |
Heterotypic Synonyms | 321 |
Homotypic Synonyms | 163 |
Unifications | 102 |
Automatically created names via rule 40d | 53 |
Emendations | 1,187 |
Validation List events | 2,977 |
Valid Publication (excluding Validation Lists) | 8,692 |
Figure 6a (below left). Cataloging of taxonomic information. GenBank began cataloging taxonomic information found in sequence metadata in 1993. By 2004, the number of Not Validly Published (NVP) names appearing on GenBank records exceeded the number of validly published names and now outnumber Validly Published (VP) names (1.4:1). This adds significantly to the burden of those attempting to use this information for tracking and identification, since it adds an additional 6.8 names/day, none of which have any formal standing in the literature. This divergence is increasing every year at a linear rate.