[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: Albertaceratops (simpson's bi-annual b*tch about dino naming)



On 2/18/07, David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:

Naming fossils after places also bears the danger that the names may not fit for long. Think of *Seymouria sanjuanensis*, named after the place in (...oops... Texas? New Mexico?)

Utah! (San Juan County)

where it was first discovered -- later it was found in Germany, too...

Of course, the holotype is still from there....

But there is a danger with names based on geopolitical entities.
Consider _Nipponosaurus sachalinensis_ from Sakhalin Island, which, at
the time of publication, belonged to Japan (=Nippon), but now belongs
to Russia. Or _Coelophysis rhodesiensis_ (=_Syntarsus rhodesiensis_,
_Megapnosaurus rhodesiensis_), from a country once called Rhodesia
(or, before that, Southern Rhodesia) but now called Zimbabwe.

Well, on the other hand, even if the geopolitical names and boundaries
become out-of-date, the biological names still reflect something of
history. Not such a bad thing....
--
Mike Keesey