Faendalimas

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Real Name: Scott Thomson

Skype: Faendalimas
IRC Nick: faendalimas (see me on #wikispecies^connect)

About Me

I have spent the last 30 years working as a taxonomist and evolutionary biologist starting at the University of Canberra where I specialised in the systematics and nomenclature of Australasian Turtles. I have described 10 taxa of turtles, both living and fossil species, among these are three genus group names.

I have recently published a complete synonymy of the Australasian Chelidae. Most of my editing is concerned with Reptiles and Amphibians, specifically Turtles. So I guess I shall explain a little about this. My career in Zoology started when I was employed as shop keeper looking after tropical and marine fish and invertebrates. I did this whilst I began my B.Sc. in Zoology. Afterwards I worked at Notre Dame Zoo and then Western Plains Zoo in Australia. During my involvement with the Zoo Industry I was involved in the Australian Species Management Plan (ASMP) Reptile and Amphibian TAG. Here I wrote the Management Plan for the Alligator Snapping Turtle and assisted with the management of the Galapagos Tortoises. This led to my becoming the joint International Species Co-ordinator for the Galapagos Tortoise along with a fellow from a USA Zoo.

I then was taken on to finish my degree at the University of Canberra. Here I worked in the Applied Ecology Institute as a taxonomist from 1994 till 2008. I was fortunate whilst here to describe 7 species of turtles (5 living - Chelodina burrungandjii, Chelodina canni, Elseya albagula, Elseya rhodini, Elseya flaviventralis and 2 fossil - Elseya nadibajagu and Rheodytes devisi. I also described one new genus Myuchelys and two subgenera Hanwarachelys and Chelydera. Further I developed keys to species of the Chelidae and a full synonomy. This has led to my advisory role with the IUCN and my membership of the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group of the Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. I take a heavy interest in nomenclatural issues and have published a number of papers in the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, the journal of the ICZN. From 2009 to 2014 I was living in northern USA and as of February, 2014 am now in Brazil, where I am a Researcher with both the Museu de Zoologia in Sao Paulo and Centro de Estudos dos Quelônios da Amazônia - CEQUA. I am working on the living and fossil Chelid and Pelomedusid turtles of South America, Africa and Australasia. I am also now working hard on nomenclatural issues in Herpetology. From 2015 to 2020 I would spend 3 months of each year in Florida where I was Curator of the Chelonian Research Institute, managing the largest and most comprehensive collection of turtles in the world.

As of 2020 I finished my work as Curator of the Chelonian Research Institute and am now an Associate Researcher at the Centro de Estudos dos Quelônios da Amazônia - CEQUA in Manaus, working on turtles of the Amazon River. Recently I have taken on the role of Secretary of the International Union of Biological Sciences Working Group for Global Species Lists. In this endeavor we are aiming to develop protocols for and aim towards a single global list of species.

Lectures on Wikiversity

Complete

What is in a Name: Nomenclature and Taxonomy in Turtles

Wikisource Copies of My Publications

Scott Thomson Author Page
- Principles for creating a single authoritative list of the world’s species
- How a scientific spat over how to name species turned into a big plus for nature

Personal Interests

Includes network marketing, beta testing of software, web site development, script writing, computer programming, mod making, computer games, martial arts and of course herpetology.

My work on Wikimedia

I am a current Beaurocrat and CheckUser on Wikispecies and spend significant time there managing the administrative issues that arrise. I am also an admin on Wikisource. I edit on the Portuguese Wikipedia, Wikidata, Commons and the English Wikipedia also.

I guess my most significant role in recent years is my time on the m:Ombuds commission where I am the current Chair. As Chair of the OC I am responsible for managing the day to day running of the Commission, ensuring Cases are handled as well as we are able and appropriately. I also report what I can to the greater Wikimedia Community and liaise with Legal, T&S and WMF where issues arise. I am of course also one of the Ombuds and investigate cases and make determinations about them. As an Ombud we investigate breaches of the foundation:Privacy policy, m:Access to nonpublic information policy, m:checkuser policy, and m:oversight policy. Our members consider the personal privacy and often this can mean safety of all users as paramount.