Richard W. Wells | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Walter Wells |
| Occupation | Herpetologist |
| Years active | 1980s–2000s |
| Known for | Australian Journal of Herpetology,Australian Biodiversity Record |
Richard Walter Wells is an Australianherpetologist. He is known for editing theAustralian Journal of Herpetology in the 1980s, in which he and C. Ross Wellingtonwrote and published three papers withoutacademic peer review that proposed significant changes to the taxonomy and nomenclature of Australian reptiles and amphibians. In the 2000s, Wells self-published herpetological research in theAustralian Biodiversity Record. The scientific names he proposed therein are the subject of a boycott begun in 2013 by some members of the herpetological community.
Richard Walter Wells[1] was interested inherpetology in his early teen years when he lived inProspect, New South Wales.[2] In 1980, he brought severaleastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) eggs to the offices ofThe Sydney Morning Herald, where they hatched, an occurrence which Wells stated had never before been captured on film.[3]
By 1981, after working as azoological specimen collector with several Australian museums, Wells had enrolled at theUniversity of New England (UNE) inArmidale where he was pursuing aBachelor of Science in biology.[4][5] Wells became a member of the Australian Herpetologists' League (AHL) at UNE and during his first year at the university, becameeditor-in-chief of theAustralian Journal of Herpetology, a newscientific journal published by the AHL.[3][4] While the journal released its first two issues, Wells did not complete his first year at UNE and moved toSydney.[4] Nonetheless, Wells maintained a mailing address at the university and his editorship with theAustralian Journal of Herpetology, although he ceased communicating with itseditorial board for two years.[4]
In a move that made him "notorious in the world of Australian herpetology", Wells unexpectedly published three papers[a] in theAustralian Journal of Herpetology in 1983 and 1985.[6][7] Coauthored by himself and high school teacherC. Ross Wellington, the papers (which had not undergoneacademic peer review) significantly reorganized the taxonomy andnomenclature, proposing over 700 nomenclatural changes between them.[8] The issues of theAustralian Journal of Herpetology in which Wells had published these three papers also indicated that the copyright holder was no longer the AHL but Australian Biological Services, an entity which shared Wells' address for payment and contact.[7][8] Members of Australia's herpetological community appealed to theInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) tosuppress the binomial names proposed by the pair, but the commission found in 1991 that it did not have the authority to rule on the issue, leaving many of Wells and Wellington's namesavailable.[8][9]
The controversy became known as theWells and Wellington affair. Wells ceased publishing academic herpetology for several years after the affair.[4][10] In 1993, he was involved in the founding of the Hawkesbury Herpetological Society, a primarily electronic herpetology club.[11]
In the 2000s, Wellsself-published several papers in theAustralian Biodiversity Record describing 36 novel taxa; these drew protests in theHerpetological Review from scientists who indicated they would not use any of the names Wells had proposed after 1999.[12] The objection to Wells' names was linked to similar concerns with the taxonomy proposed by fellow AustralianRaymond Hoser, who had self-published numerous nomenclature changes in his own periodical.[13] As of 2017[update], the status of the names Wells had proposed in theAustralian Biodiversity Record remained unclear, because no formal complaint to suppress or preserve the names had been submitted to or voted on by the ICZN.[13] Some species identified by Wells were later validated by other researchers, yet Wells' names were ignored in protest.[13] Without an ICZN ruling on whether Wells' names proposed in theAustralian Biodiversity Record are validsenior synonyms, "there continues to be a significant dual nomenclature being created [...] to confuse not only herpetologists but also agencies or governments needing to cite the names in regulatory or conservation legislation, and in other scientific disciplines such as medicine."[13]
Raymond Hoser bestowed the specific nameAcanthophis wellsi on thePilbara death adder, in honour of Wells and his taxonomic contributions.[14]
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Data related toRichard W. Wells at Wikispecies