Re: [dinosaur] Party like it's 1758!

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com> wrote:

> > As Peter Dodson succinctly put it in 'The Horned Dinosaurs' (back in 1996); 
> > "The problem is that when you show such restraint somebody else will very
> > likely come along and rename your dinosaur".
>
> Yes, but at the same time, no one wants to name a genus that in all 
> probability will end up a junior synonym of something else, or worse, a nomen 
> dubium.

True.  So in that case, why name it at all?  If you're not convinced
it's a novel or valid species... don't give it a name.


> > ...Having monospecific genera limited to their respective type species 
> > would prevent the practice of using genera as wastebaskets.
>
> Yes, but the flip side is:  there would be an explosion of new generic names, 
> many of which would certainly wind up synonymized with something else at a
> later date.

Again true.  But this synonymization already happens at the species level.