RE: New names in dissertations

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

Tim Williams writes:
 > Brad McFeeters wrote:
 > 
 > > If your dissertation name
 > > isn't "real," it means that this unsuspecting
 > > grad student now has the credit for naming the taxon.>
 > > Has this ever actually happened to a real taxon?
 > 
 > A similar thing happened with the name _Ultrasaurus_.  A Korean
 > scientist (Kim) inadvertently erected the genus _Ultrasaurus_ in
 > 1983, when he named _U. tabriensis_.  Apparently Kim was under the
 > misapprehension that the genus _Ultrasaurus_ had already been
 > erected by Jensen.

I've heard this story a couple of times; but Curtice et al. (1996:87)
have a less amusing version: "In 1983, apparently unaware of Jensen's
use of the informal name Ultrasaurus, Kim described a putative neural
spine and a very large proximal ulna from Korea, and he formally named
it _Ultrasaurus tabriensis_."

Still, whichever version is true, you'd think I of all people would
have been aware of your version of that story, which answers my
original question.  Thanks to you and to Andy.

 _/|_    ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor    <mike@indexdata.com>    http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "Nobody on his deathbed ever said, ``I wish I'd spent more time
         at the office''" -- Peter Lynch.