Toward scalable species descriptions for dark taxa: the role of molecular data

Species descriptions remain the foundation of biodiversity science, but alpha taxonomy faces a twofold challenge: accelerating the pace of species discovery while ensuring that descriptions produce data that are usable, comparable, and reproducible. This is particularly acute for “dark taxa”—small, hyperdiverse, and morphologically challenging groups—for which morphology-based workflows alone often fail to deliver scalable and reliable identifications. As a result, most species remain undescribed, and many described species are difficult or impossible to identify. We argue that species descriptions must be integrative in a way that meets the practical requirements of modern taxonomy, including scalability, reliable identification, reproducibility, and applicability across life stages. At present, standardized molecular data in the form of DNA barcoding is the only approach that consistently satisfies these criteria. Emerging approaches based on robotics, imaging and artificial intelligence may eventually provide complementary frameworks, but currently lack the standardization and interoperability required for routine application at scale. In contrast, barcode data already enable high-throughput species delimitation, straightforward identification, and direct comparability across studies, supported by global reference libraries and standardized protocols. We therefore propose that DNA barcodes be treated as a baseline component of species descriptions for invertebrates. Standardizing molecular data in taxonomy will accelerate species discovery, improve reproducibility and stability, and ensure that newly described taxa remain accessible in an increasingly DNA-based research landscape.

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Publication Details

Journal
ZooKeys
Published
2026-06-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1283.172693
Primary Topic
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Toward scalable species descriptions for dark taxa: the role of molecular data

Daniel H. Janzen, Ashley P. G. Dowling, Buntika Areekul Butcher, Niina Kiljunen et al.
ZooKeys
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
article

Toward scalable species descriptions for dark taxa: the role of molecular data

Daniel H. Janzen, Ashley P. G. Dowling, Buntika Areekul Butcher, Niina Kiljunen, Scott E. Miller, H. C. J. Godfray, Laurence Packer, Guilherme Oliveira, Winnie Hallwachs, Alfried P. Vogler, Dirk Steinke, Michael Sharkey, Brian V. Brown, Emily Hartop, Marko Mutanen, Paul D. N. Hebert, Diego J. Inclán, José A. Hernández Ugalde, Jeffrey H. Skevington, Austin Baker, Donald L. J. Quicke, Axel Hausmann
article en

Abstract

Species descriptions remain the foundation of biodiversity science, but alpha taxonomy faces a twofold challenge: accelerating the pace of species discovery while ensuring that descriptions produce data that are usable, comparable, and reproducible. This is particularly acute for “dark taxa”—small, hyperdiverse, and morphologically challenging groups—for which morphology-based workflows alone often fail to deliver scalable and reliable identifications. As a result, most species remain undescribed, and many described species are difficult or impossible to identify. We argue that species descriptions must be integrative in a way that meets the practical requirements of modern taxonomy, including scalability, reliable identification, reproducibility, and applicability across life stages. At present, standardized molecular data in the form of DNA barcoding is the only approach that consistently satisfies these criteria. Emerging approaches based on robotics, imaging and artificial intelligence may eventually provide complementary frameworks, but currently lack the standardization and interoperability required for routine application at scale. In contrast, barcode data already enable high-throughput species delimitation, straightforward identification, and direct comparability across studies, supported by global reference libraries and standardized protocols. We therefore propose that DNA barcodes be treated as a baseline component of species descriptions for invertebrates. Standardizing molecular data in taxonomy will accelerate species discovery, improve reproducibility and stability, and ensure that newly described taxa remain accessible in an increasingly DNA-based research landscape.

ZooKeysVol. 1283
Smithsonian Institution (US), Natural History Museum (GB), National Museum of Natural History (US), Central University of Ecuador (EC), Chulalongkorn University (TH), York University (CA), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO), Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (US), University of Oxford (GB), National Biodiversity Institute (CR), Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (EC), Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (DE), Vale Technological Institute (BR), Imperial College London (GB), University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (US), University of Pennsylvania (US), University of Guelph (CA), Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (GB), University of Oulu (FI)
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Genome Canada, Ontario Research Foundation, Ontario Genomics, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canada First Research Excellence Fund, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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