Re: Camarillasaurus, new Early Cretaceous ceratosaur theropod from Spain

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From:  Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


Jocelyn noted:
"*Camarillasaurus cirugedae* sp. nov.
[...]
Etymology: The species name cirugedae comes from the surname of the
person who found the bones, Pedro Cirugeda Buj."

...

As far as I know, Pedro is a male name, in Spanish, so the correct
epithet should be *cirugedai* !


===
Note that the surname Cirugeda would be a first-declension noun in
Latin and so would have a genitive case Cirugedae regardless of the
masculine gender of the person named. Some first-declension nouns and
names in Latin were masculine (agricola, Numa).

The ICZN mentions this option.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/

Chapter 7, Article 31:

31.1  "Nicolaus Poda, even though the name of a man, if accepted as a
Latin name, gives podae."

Under current ICZN rules, either cirugedae or cirugedai--or even
cirugedi--would be correct.