Hypothetical list of biota
Encyclopedia
A hypothetical list of biota
, or "hypothetical list" for short, is a list of taxa (of plant
s, animal
s, fungi etc) which are not recorded from a given geographical area, but which may be found there. Such lists are sometimes included by authors of regional biota, partly to demonstrate that the authors have considered and rejected the taxa in question rather than overlooked them, and partly to encourage researchers and others to seek out the taxa in question so that they can be added to the list of the area's biota in future revisions.
Taxa may be included for different reasons:
Ornithological works which have included hypothetical lists include the following:
Biota (ecology)
Biota are the total collection of organisms of a geographic region or a time period, from local geographic scales and instantaneous temporal scales all the way up to whole-planet and whole-timescale spatiotemporal scales. The biota of the Earth lives in the biosphere.-See...
, or "hypothetical list" for short, is a list of taxa (of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s, animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s, fungi etc) which are not recorded from a given geographical area, but which may be found there. Such lists are sometimes included by authors of regional biota, partly to demonstrate that the authors have considered and rejected the taxa in question rather than overlooked them, and partly to encourage researchers and others to seek out the taxa in question so that they can be added to the list of the area's biota in future revisions.
Taxa may be included for different reasons:
- They may be resident close to the region in question, and the region may have habitat which appears suitable
- They may be long-distance vagrants with a pattern of occurrence
- They may be poorly-studied taxa, which the authors feel could be found in the region if appropriate search techniques are used
- There may be historical evidence of occurrence which the authors felt was not watertight enough to justify inclusion in a definitive list for the region
Ornithological works which have included hypothetical lists include the following:
- A field guide to the birds of Hawaii and the Tropical PacificA field guide to the birds of Hawaii and the Tropical PacificA Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific is a 1987 book by Harold Douglas Pratt, Jr., Phillip L. Bruner and Delwyn G. Berrett . It is published by Princeton University Press and is produced as both hardback and softback editions...
by Pratt, Bruner and Berrett - Birds of South Asia. The Ripley GuideBirds of South Asia. The Ripley GuideBirds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide by Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C. Anderton is a two-volume ornithological handbook, covering the birds of South Asia, published in 2005 by the Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions...
by Rasmussen and Anderton