Re: When is a synonymisation not a synonymisation? (Was: Bakker's Brontosaurus and Late Cretaceous populations)

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Mike Taylor (mike@miketaylor.org.uk) wrote:

<Well, this raises an important point -- what counts as a legitimate
synonymisation?  We wouldn't accept the erection of a new genus or species in
an abstract, so why accept the sinking of an existing one? That doesn't sound
right to me.>

  I think to accurately synonymize two taxa as being concordant with one
another should only be done by explicit means of comparison. Just as one
shouldn't synonymize two taxa based on exclusively represented material (one a
skull, the other a shoulder girdle), explicit means are the only way to
positively test a synonymy.

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


                
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