{"id":383937,"date":"2025-06-20T11:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T09:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=383937"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T09:09:11","slug":"yet-another-darter-fish-invented-to-stop-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=383937","title":{"rendered":"Yet Another Darter-fish Invented to Stop Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opinion by Kip Hansen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Way down in Bessemer, Alabama, the development of a huge data center is being fought with a time-tried and proven tactic<\/a> :  invent a new species of the darter-fish and declare it at once \u201cendangered\u201d.  According to locals and environmental activists the new development would certainly spell doom for the little discovered-just-in-time new darter \u2013 this one declared to be the \u201cBirmingham darter\u201d or Etheostoma birminghamense. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A team of biologists headed by Chase D. Brownstein at Yale University determined the new species \u201cusing genomic analyses.\u201d and counting \u201cthe numbers of scale rows and fin elements from each specimen and performed principal component analysis (PCA) of the meristic traits\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Of course, there were many differences between the individual fish of these \u201cmeristic traits\u201d, so the authors classified them into \u201cnew\u201d species based on\u00a0average<\/em>\u00a0values for those counted traits, in some cases using\u00a0mean<\/a><\/em>\u00a0values, in other the\u00a0modal<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, the definition of \u201cmeristic traits\u201d is generally this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMeristic traits are characteristics of organisms that can be counted and are expressed as whole numbers. <\/strong>These traits are discrete, meaning they have distinct, countable categories rather than a continuous range of values. Examples include the number of fins, scales, or vertebrae in an organism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The terminology used in the table is \u201caverage number of lateral line spines\u201d, \u201cmodal number of first dorsal fine spines\u201d and the \u201cmean value of genealogical divergence index\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not simple counts, though two are presented as whole numbers (allowed by the use of the mode, instead of the mean).  These fish, claimed as distinct species, all have between 46 and 49 lateral line scales (individuals in each species having differing counts around the average).  Each of the new species consists of fish with dorsal fin spines equally varied around 10 or 11, and the same for pectoral fin rays, around 13 or 14.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In this we find the fine art of the Species Splitters<\/a>,  a term:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026introduced more widely by George G. Simpson in his 1945 work The Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals. As he put it:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201csplitters<\/strong> make very small units \u2013 their critics say that if they can tell two animals apart, they place them in different genera \u2026 and if they cannot tell them apart, they place them in different species. \u2026 Lumpers <\/strong>make large units \u2013 their critics say that if a carnivore is neither a dog nor a bear, they call it a cat.\u201d  [ wiki<\/a> ]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minor differences number of scales and fin elements, that vary from individual-to-individual as well as between very localized and somewhat isolated populations seem to have been exaggerated in importance to create new species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of these newly declared species have been official designated as \u201cEndangered Species\u201d, but the paper, Brownstein et al. [2025]<\/a>, <\/em>labels them \u201c<\/em>imperiled\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purposefully invented imperiled species?  Who can say? \u2026but certainly convenient to the anti-development activists in Alabama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author\u2019s Comment:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successful ploys are always tried again and again.  The famous snail d<\/a>a<\/a>rter<\/a> <\/strong>was used to delay the building of the Tellico Dam<\/a> for years.  <\/strong>We can look forward to the anti-data-center activists in Alabama using The Science [purpose?] produced by Brownstein et al. to attempt to stop or delay approvals for construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is almost always true, activists are not interested in the new Birmingham Darter \u2013 they just want to stop the building of the data center.  Same old same old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way down in Bessemer, Alabama,\u00a0the development of a huge data center is being fought with a time-tried and proven tactic\u00a0: \u00a0invent a new species of the darter-fish and declare it at once \u201cendangered\u201d.\u00a0 According to locals and environmental activists the new development would certainly spell doom for the little discovered-just-in-time new darter \u2013 this one declared to be the \u201cBirmingham darter\u201d or\u00a0Etheostoma birminghamense.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":383939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828532,691835926,691835929,691828638,691835928,691835927],"class_list":{"0":"post-383937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-darter-fish","10":"tag-endangered-species","11":"tag-environmental-activists","12":"tag-etheostoma-birminghamense","13":"tag-new-species","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Darters-illustration_full.webp?fit=1216%2C792&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1BSx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":360881,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=360881","url_meta":{"origin":383937,"position":0},"title":"The Little Fish That Could","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cSwim Swim Swim.\u00a0 Blub Blub Blub. The little fish swam along the river.\u00a0 He was a happy little fish.\u201d And this little fish was very proud.\u00a0 All by itself, just by swimming along in the\u00a0Little Tennessee River, the happy little fish stopped the creation of the\u00a0Tellico Reservoir\u00a0\u2013 for six long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Endangered Species Act (ESA)\"","block_context":{"text":"Endangered Species Act (ESA)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=endangered-species-act-esa"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/046e54f8e-61ae-402e-a678-3f1a492891d5-snail-darter-in-hand_0.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/046e54f8e-61ae-402e-a678-3f1a492891d5-snail-darter-in-hand_0.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/046e54f8e-61ae-402e-a678-3f1a492891d5-snail-darter-in-hand_0.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/046e54f8e-61ae-402e-a678-3f1a492891d5-snail-darter-in-hand_0.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/046e54f8e-61ae-402e-a678-3f1a492891d5-snail-darter-in-hand_0.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248508,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248508","url_meta":{"origin":383937,"position":1},"title":"Best Extinction Prevention Plan?\u00a0 Quit Killing Them","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The environmental protection world, and the world in general, has been going nuts over the issue of species extinction.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-716.png?fit=1200%2C601&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":292665,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292665","url_meta":{"origin":383937,"position":2},"title":"BONNER COHEN: This Landmark Conservation Bill Has Been An Abject Failure For Fifty Years","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"December 23, 2023 marks the 50th\u00a0anniversary of the signing of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by President Richard M. Nixon. 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species\u00a0assessments","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a lot of things wrong with the\u00a0Endangered Species Act\u00a0(ESA) \u2013 including that constitutionally, the power to regulate fish and wildlife lies with the states, not the federal government \u2013 but a worrying trend has developed where outputs of predictive climate change models (based on an assumption that human-caused\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic species\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic species","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-species"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0esactimage.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0esactimage.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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