How long does it take to discover a species?

The description of a new species is a key step in cataloguing the World’s flora. However, this is only a preliminary stage in a long process of understanding what that species represents. We investigated how long the species discovery process takes by focusing on three key stages: 1, the collection of the first specimen; 2, the publication of the species name; and 3, the date when a minimum number of 15 accurately named specimens are available. We quantified the time lags associated with these stages for several groups of plants with different numbers of species and from different regions, including the 20 most species-rich Angiosperm families. Our analyses reveal that it takes decades to accumulate a minimum number of specimens to allow subsequent studies of any kind. The time lag between stages 1 and 3 is consistently over 70 years with groups such as the tropical genus <i>Aframomum</i> reflecting an average time lag of over 100 years. In light of our results, we suggest that species discovery is most accurately characterized as a lengthy process of knowledge accumulation, often spanning decades, rather than a one-off event.

新物种描述是全球植物区系编目工作的关键环节。然而，这仅是认知该物种本质的漫长研究流程中的初步阶段。本研究聚焦三个核心阶段，以探明物种发现流程所需时长：其一为首份标本的采集；其二为物种学名的正式发表；其三为至少15份定名准确的标本可供获取的日期。我们针对物种数量各异、分布区域不同的多类植物（涵盖物种丰富度位列前20的被子植物（Angiosperm）科），量化了各阶段对应的时间滞后情况。分析结果显示，积累足够支撑后续各类研究的最低标本量需耗时数十年。阶段1至阶段3之间的时间滞后时长普遍超过70年，热带Aframomum属类群的平均滞后时长更是突破100年。基于本研究结果，我们认为物种发现更准确的特征应为一项耗时数十年的漫长知识积累过程，而非一次性事件。