What To Do and How To Do It

Here’s how Taxonomic Tithing works:

Each and every taxonomist in the world is invited to put up for public auction every tenth species she or he describes as new to science–or even more should you wish! For the time being we need only your name, your general whereabouts, your field of expertise, and your e-mail address. (Sign up here!) Once Taxonomic Tithing is finally up and running, somebody from the designated agency will be in touch to work out the timing as near as possible. Remember: it’s you who will decide what land trust or conservation agency will receive moneys raised by auctioning off the naming rights to your species. In the meantime, here are some guidelines:

1. Each candidate species will be accepted for listing only once it has been accepted for publication in a recognized, peer-reviewed journal. This step is necessary to ensure that the donor species is taxonomically valid, and hence unlikely eventually to be reduced to synonymy. Peer review will be deemed sufficient for this purpose, though of course all participants must be made aware that a name may ultimately be synonymized; although even in such case the name, of course, will still exist!
2. You will be asked to provide a photo of the auctioned species, and to prepare a short summary of it, emphasizing its outward appearance, its habitat and distribution, its evolutionary relationships and, if appropriate, its rarity status.
3. You will select a tax-accredited land trust or conservation group for receipt of the monies raised, with the understanding that all proceeds will remain with that group. The recipient group would of course provide a tax credit to the successful bidder.

Reserve bids will have to be kept high in order to ensure continued interest on the part of taxonomists, philanthropists, and the general public. For each species put up to auction, we suggest a reserve bid of $75,000.00, and a starting bid of at least $5,000.00.

Each auction period would run for a set number of months (two?), after which the winning bidder would be announced, and asked to forward the agreed upon amount to the conservation group in question. Only once the host agency receives certified notification from the recipient group acknowledging receipt of funds, will the winning bidder be invited to select a name for the auctioned species. The selected name will of course be required to conform to usual nomenclatural principles, e.g., if named after a person, it should usually end in -ei, or -ii. In view of the need for taxonomists to publish efficiently, monies should be received by the recipient group within two weeks of the winning announcement. Failing this, a new winning bidder will be announced, based on the second highest bid. Only after the recipient group has received the agreed upon monies, and only once the winning bidder has decided on a name for his/her species, only then would a press release be prepared describing the winning bidder, the winning bid, the chosen name, and the title of the journal in which the name will appear. If desired, arrangements could be made withhold the name of a given benefactor.

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