Re: Hongshanornis longicresta

[Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com>]

<Tim Williams (twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com) wrote:

<<The authors say "cresta" is a Latin word.>

<  It's not, but it IS a Spanish word for same meaning. The Latin root was
<transferred in Spanish languages as _cresta_, but Latin retained the _i_.
<_Crista_ is "a crest," while _cristata_ is "crested" or "crest [bearing]". 
This
<is clearly the authors' meaning, though the nomenclature did not match. 
Nothing
<but to use it.

<  Cheers,

<Jaime A. Headden


from the ICZN:

32.5. Spellings that must be corrected (incorrect original spellings).

32.5.1. If there is in the original publication itself, without recourse to 
any external source of information, clear evidence of an inadvertent error, 
such as a lapsus calami or a copyist's or printer's error, it must be 
corrected. Incorrect transliteration or latinization, or use of an 
inappropriate connecting vowel, are not to be considered inadvertent errors.

32.5.1.1. The correction of a spelling of a name in a publisher's or 
author's corrigendum issued simultaneously with the original work or as a 
circulated slip to be inserted in the work (or if in a journal, or work 
issued in parts, in one of the parts of the same volume) is to be accepted 
as clear evidence of an inadvertent error.

Examples. If an author in proposing a new species-group name were to state 
that he or she was naming the species after Linnaeus, yet the name was 
published as ninnaei, it would be an incorrect original spelling to be 
corrected to linnaei. Enygmophyllum is not an incorrect original spelling 
(for example of Enigmatophyllum) solely on the grounds that it was 
incorrectly transliterated or latinized.



This is rather a borderline case. One could argue that "cresta" is an 
incorrect latinization, and ergo a valid name. On the other hand the 
authors indicate that it is supposed to be a *latin* word, so You could 
argue that it is an obvious misspelling and should be emended to longicrista.

Tommy Tyrberg