Recent criticism by users of mammal taxonomy on current trends in the discipline and in adopted species concept require that an historical perspective should be added to the issue. The low profile accorded to taxonomy by evolutionary biology for most of the XX century, not detailed revisionary work, was the main reason for the artificial stability of taxonomies until the 80's of the last century. Conservation biology has been one of the main causes of upsurge of interest in mammal taxonomy and we argue that lesser inclusive species concepts are largely positive for biodiversity conservation.