RE: Diceratops

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Jaime Headden wrote:

>   Using Chris' helpful link, I also found that Rafinesque named a 
> *Ceratops* as
> a nomen nudum in 1815, before Marsh's name *Ceratops montanus*. But of 
> course,
> nomina nuda do not compete for priority.  Lull apparently recognized this 
> and
> renamed it *Proceratops montanus*, but this is also a nomen nudum?

I didn't understand this either.  Lull would have renamed _Ceratops_ Marsh 
1888 because he believed (incorrectly, as it turns out) that _Ceratops_ 
Rafinesque 1815 was a valid genus.  _Ceratops montanus_ is nomenclaturally 
valid, so _Proceratops_ Lull 1906 (proposed as a replacement name for 
_Ceratops_ Marsh 1888) should be valid too.

Something else that's weird... There is no mention of _Cryptosaurus_ Seeley 
1869.  This dinosaur genus was re-named _Cryptodraco_ by Lydekker twenty 
years later, under the belief that the original name was preoccupied.  
_Cryptosaurus_ is given in Nomenclator Zoologicus as a valid genus: 
_Cryptosaurus_ [Anonymous] 1833.  But I was under the impression that the 
latter name was (a) named by Geoffrey; and (b) was a misspelling of 
_Cystosaurus_ Geoffroy 1833.  So, _Cryptosaurus_ Seeley should be OK.

Christopher Taylor wrote:

> You'll have
> to scroll down - the same issue includes two truly dire proposals for
> extending the ICZN to cover suprafamilial taxa. The first of these would
> even require typified names at all ranks with standardised endings. As
> an arachnologist myself, I'm still reeling with horror from seeing
> Ricinulei renamed 'Poliocheriformes', Palpigradi as 'Eukoeneniiformes'
> and Cheliceromorpha as 'Scorpionozoi'.

Double eep!  Sounds like a perfectly horrid idea.  It's bad enough that 
co-ordinated family-level taxa have ICZN strings attached... but everything! 
 I would have gone the other way, and limit the scope of the ICZN to just 
genera and species (and subspecies).

> This system would probably make Vertebrata into 'Hominozoi'... eep!

I shudder to think what Metazoa would be called.  Or Eukaryota.  :-O

Cheers

Tim