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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become out-of-date, the biological names still reflect something of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