RE: Vitakridrinda publication validity

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> 1. Perhaps you misunderstood. The issue [I have] with *Ambondro mahabo*
> is that it is referred to as a genus-species couplet in further
> literature, not just Wikipedia;

OK; I'm just saying Wikipedia can be taken care of.

> This means that taxonomic listings treat it as "genus" + species, not
> an unranked praenomen in front of a species name.

It's not even that (in the original paper anyway). It's a uninominal for an 
unranked taxon that has a space in the middle. Not "new species", just "new 
taxon".

> 2.My issue with changing things on wiki is that just as easily someone
> who disagrees can change it back. I attempted this on the oviraptorosaur
> pages, and the changes I had attempted (years back) were undone.

Did you explain your changes and the reasons for them on the talk page?

> editors' prerogatives on how they want to allow changes from schmucks
> like myself.

Everyone is an editor. (Not everyone is an administrator, but administrators 
seldom meddle in such things.)

> 3. Also misunderstood, I think. I am referring to the primary body of
> the text. The designation of *Ambondro mahabo* as it was by Flynn et
> al. will not not recognized for what it is when "unranked" is used in
> the infobox. It should be in the main text, and compared to other
> discussions. This was the primary reason I balked at the editing (plus,
> I'm also a schmuck).

I'm not quite sure what you mean. I'll attempt a thorough edit myself tomorrow.

> One recent example was the "discovery" of a new family of
> amphisbaenians/gymnophionans

Amphisbaenians are squamates. Gymnophionans/caecilians are lissamphibians.

> that has been reported (but is currently unpublished)

(On paper.)

> through redesignation of *Gegeneophis fulleri* (nee *Herpele fulleri*)
> to a new "genus," and the designation of a new "family" to contain it,
> plus apparently a range of potentially new species within said "genus".
> The "genus" in question is considered monospecific, and the authors'
> reasoning is based on typical Linnaeist typological thinking ("this
> object is very distinct" or "more distinct" -- not actual quotes).

The genus is easy to justify: in order to lump it with *Herpele*, you'd have to 
lump *Boulengerula* in there as well; in order to lump it with *Gegeneophis* 
(has that species, previously known from a single, morphologically badly 
preserved specimen, ever been referred to *Gegeneophis*?), it and most other 
caecilians would have to be sunk (back) into *Caecilia*.

The family is justified in the paper by comparison to other families in terms 
of morphological distance and divergence time (the diagnosis of Herpelidae 
would have to be changed a lot, and most gymnophionan families are younger than 
the divergence between Herpelidae and the new one). That's the Linnaeanist 
part, of which I have to say the "why not" is as strong as the "why".

Free pdf: 
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/02/15/rspb.2012.0150.full.pdf+html
Free supplementary information: 
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/02/15/rspb.2012.0150/suppl/DC1