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Digitally native species are a necessary shift in taxonomic practice

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Biodiversity science laments how little is known about the planet’s biodiversity, yet routinely discards much of the taxonomic evidence generated during species description. Digitally native species conceived and maintained in machine-actionable environments can both address shortcomings and broaden participation in taxonomy.

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Fig. 1: Taxonomic workflows.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin), Berlin, Germany

    Rudolf Meier & Amrita Srivathsan

  2. Department of Biology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Rudolf Meier

  3. Plazi, Bern, Switzerland

    Donat Agosti

Authors

  1. Rudolf Meier
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  2. Donat Agosti
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  3. Amrita Srivathsan
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Rudolf Meier.

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Meier, R., Agosti, D. & Srivathsan, A. Digitally native species are a necessary shift in taxonomic practice.
Nat. Rev. Biodivers. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-026-00156-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-026-00156-y

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