Article Dans Une Revue Bioscience Année : 2025

The use of eponyms can also promote gender equity in modern taxonomy

Résumé

There is an ongoing debate about how species are named, with several calls to revise naming conventions (e.g., Guedes et al. 2023, Harris and Xavier 2023). The science of describing species, taxonomy, has remained largely unchanged since Linnaeus introduced the binomial system centuries ago. However, naming species is largely influenced by the societal context in which scientists operate (Ceríaco et al. 2016, Mammola et al. 2023, Toussaint et al. 2024). In a hotly debated recent paper, Guedes and colleagues (2023) specifically argued that eponyms (that is, dedications to people) are predominantly assigned to “almost universally White, male upper-class Europeans” and advocated for discontinuing their use.

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hal-05166839 , version 1 (07-01-2026)

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Julien Pétillon, Célia Noël, Antonio Brescovit, Yuri M. Marusik, Cristina A. Rheims, et al.. The use of eponyms can also promote gender equity in modern taxonomy. Bioscience, 2025, 7 (9), pp.691-694. ⟨10.1093/biosci/biaf083⟩. ⟨hal-05166839⟩
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