Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

[Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>]

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if there might be a loophole in the ICZN to 
*completely* revise a name if it's not composed properly in the initial 
publication, i.e. basically to change it to whatever you want. I've never 
looked into that, but I'd guess (and would hope) that you can only correct it 
insofar as the Latin composition is concerned.


On Saturday, July 25, 2020, 05:07:43 AM UTC, Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu> 
wrote:

> It's just that generic name which is going to win awards for being one of the 
> worst of all time.

In addition to being poorly composed, you mean?

The number of Latin noun stems that actually end in u is very small (and oculo- 
âeyeâ is not one of them). The vast majority of Latin nouns whose 
nominative singular form ends in -us actually have stems that end in -

The upshot is, if you end up with a u in the middle of your proposed name, 
youâve most likely done it wrong.

âNick P.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 23, 2020, at 11:41 PM, Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com> wrote: