"A checklist of species is an invaluable tool for both researchers and the interested public." Thus began the first edition of this work, published by the Association of Systematics Collections (ASC) and Allen Press in 1982. That first edition was prepared by 189 professional mammalogists from 23 countries. It was coordinated by a special Checklist Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists. During the ensuing decade, it became the industry standard for mammalian taxonomy, providing an authoritative reference for nonspecialists and establishing an overall taxonomic hypothesis for testing by systematic mammalogists. Students of mammalian taxonomy have made significant advances in recent years. One hundred seventy one new species have been described since the 1982 edition, and numerous taxonomic changes have been suggested. A revised edition of the checklist is clearly warranted.
The American Society of Mammalogists anticipated the need for revision and established a Standing Checklist Committee under the chairmanship of Karl F. Koopman in June 1982, concurrent with the publication of the first edition. Duane A. Schütter joined Koopman as cochair in 1985, and they coordinated the committee's efforts until 1990. At that time, Don E. Wilson assumed the chairmanship of the committee, with a mandate to expand the committee and produce a second edition of the checklist. The authors of this edition constitute that expanded committee. With support from the Office of Biodiversity Programs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, DeeAnn M. Reeder joined the project as a full-time research assistant in August 1991.
The new edition differs in several significant ways from the original. Perhaps most important of these is the abandonment of the egalitarian approach of the first edition that allowed any mammalogist the opportunity to have dissenting opinions published along with the consensus taxonomic arrangement. Each section of the new edition carries authorship, and taxonomic decisions are solely the responsibility of the appropriate author(s). Authors were chosen on the basis of expertise with their respective groups and were allowed to adopt the taxonomic arrangement they felt best reflected the current state of knowledge. This allows for more cohesive arrangements of taxa, and forces conflicting opinions to be expressed in the scientific literature where they can be substantiated by data.
As with the original, this edition should not be viewed as final. MammaHan taxonomy is constantly being refined as phylogenetic hypotheses are tested, and we anticipate continued change in the arrangement presented here. The checklist will be maintained in electronic form to simpUfy future updates. We welcome your suggestions, comments, and additions, and would particularly appreciate receiving copies of pertinent literature for preparation of future editions.