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Okay, that's what I thought. The classic dinosaurian example is Caenagnathidae back when Caenagnathus was a junior synonym of Chirostenotes, having priority over both Elmisauridae and Oviraptoroidea. For something like Tim's interpretation, the ICZN would
have to make a different ruling more like Opinion 1070 - "the specific name
lithographica von Meyer, 1861, as published in the binomen
Archaeopteryx lithographica, is to be given precedence over the specific name
crassipes von Meyer, 1857, as published in the binomen
Pterodactylus crassipes by any zoologist who believes that the two specific names apply to the same taxon."
Mickey Mortimer
From: dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu> on behalf of David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 1:51 AM To: dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu> Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Plateosaurus species > It's my understanding that _P. engelhardti_ is currently regarded as a
> nomen dubium. As such, it should have no taxonomic standing. The trick is that taxonomic standing and nomenclatural standing are two different things. "Nomen dubium" is about taxonomic standing; it is unrelated to nomenclatural standing, and therefore not used in any rule of the ICZN (it just appears in the glossary). > So in the event that _P. trossingensis_ and _P. engelhardti_ are > demonstrated to be conspecific.... this is a tricky one. My > interpretation is that because _P. trossingensis_ was declared by fiat > to be the type species, and that _P. engelhardti was specifically set > aside as type species in the same decision, that _P. trossingensis_ > would therefore have priority over _P. engelhardti_. No. There is no problem if the name of a type species is a junior synonym. If *P. trossingensis* and *P. engelhardti* are subjective (as opposed to objective) synonyms, or taxonomic (as opposed to nomenclatural) synonyms as the botanical code calls them, then *P. trossingensis* is de jure the type species for nomenclatural purposes, and *P. engelhardti* is de facto the _name_ of the type species for taxonomic purposes because we think *P. engelhardti* is what *P. trossingensis* actually is. This is being done right with *Tarbosaurus*. A genus whose type species is a junior synonym is no different from a family whose type genus bears a name that is a junior synonym – and there are lots of those. In my field there are Gymnarthridae, named after *Gymnarthrus*, a junior synonym of *Cardiocephalus*, and Brachystelechidae, named after *Brachystelechus*, a junior synoym of... a preoccupied name that had to be replaced by *Batropetes*. |