No; such a list would encourage flamewars about the topics not on it and metaflamewars about the list itself.
So basically the list is in your head? That's not very open.
HN is moderated! That means humans making interpretations and judgment calls. There's no way to make that 'open' in the sense I imagine you mean, but we try our best to be 'open' in the sense of being clear about what we're doing and answering questions about particular cases.
What we don't do is formalize everything, because a) that's impossible and b) what a nightmare it would be to try.
Assuming that the animal was chosen based on it's survival traits, I think C. elegans might be a better choice.