Beveridge Ian, Spratt David M
Department of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Veterinary Clinical Centre, Werribee, Victoria, Australia.
National Wildlife Collection, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia.
Trends Parasitol. 2015 Apr;31(4):142-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2014.10.007. Epub 2014 Nov 26.
Despite current attempts to document the extent of biodiversity on Earth, significant problems exist in fully documenting the helminth parasites of wildlife. Using the Australasian marsupials as an example, we examine some of these difficulties, including challenges in collecting uncommon host species, the ongoing description of new species of marsupials, the presence of cryptic species, and the decline in taxonomic expertise in Australia. Although optimistic global predictions have been made concerning the rate of discovery and description of new species of animals, these predictions may not apply in the case of specific groups of animals such as the Australasian marsupials.
尽管目前人们试图记录地球上生物多样性的程度，但在全面记录野生动物的蠕虫寄生虫方面仍存在重大问题。以澳大利亚有袋动物为例，我们研究了其中一些困难，包括收集罕见宿主物种的挑战、有袋动物新物种的持续描述、隐性物种的存在以及澳大利亚分类学专业知识的下降。尽管已经对全球新动物物种的发现和描述速度做出了乐观预测，但这些预测可能不适用于澳大利亚有袋动物等特定动物群体。
