Re: Leviathan melvillei -- preoccupied?

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu> wrote:

> I thought the same. Of course, I
> thought it was going to turn out to have
> been used by an arthropod, but still...


Yes, so did I.  So many names have been 'taken' by arthropods already: 
_Laelaps_ (mite), _Rahona_ (moth), _Mononychus_ (beetle), _Syntarsus_ (beetle), 
_Microceratops_ (wasp), and so on.  So I thought _Leviathan_ would be 
preoccupied by some crab or beetle or something.  No, turns out it's a mastodon 
(_Leviathan_ Koch - junior synonym of _Mammut_).


If the name _Leviathan_ is preoccupied, one option is just to re-name the whale 
genus such that it is more faithful to the original Hebrew ('Liwyatan' or 
'Livyatan').  There's already at least one fossil genus with a Hebrew name: 
_Najash_, a primitive Cretaceous snake, named after a biblical legged serpent.


Cheers

Tim