www.CuriousTaxonomy.net
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Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
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Mark Isaak
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Rules for assigning scientific names have become well codified in order to
keep the names internationally unambiguous and understandable. The full
set of rules is rather involved, but the most important parts are fairly
simple:
- Binomens - A genus name is one word. A species name is
binomial -- the genus plus a second word. Subspecies have a trinomial
name (a "trinomen"). A subgenus is occasionally given in parentheses
after the genus, thus:
Bison (Bison) bison bison (Linne 1758) Skinner & Kaisen,
1947 (American bison)
- Authorship -
The author's name and date of publication are typically given after the
scientific name. If a name is later changed (e.g., moved to a new genus),
The original author is given in parentheses. The names are often
abbreviated; in particular, "L." is Linnaeus.
Anonymous publication is invalid as of 1950, but was accepted before
then.
Buettikoferella Stresemann 1928
(buff-banded grassbird) This name was originally published in an obituary.
Stresemann mentioned, in an obituary for Buettikofer, that a bird genus
was named after him, but Stresemann realized that Buettikoferia was
preoccupied, so he proposed this as a replacement. [Orn. Monatsb.
36: 40,note4]
- Description - After 1930, new names must come with a description
(or reference to one) telling what the name means.
Megalochelys atlas (Rhodin et al. 2015)
(giant Miocene-Pleistocene turtle) The fossil was first
named Megalochelys sivalensis by Falconer & Cautley (1837),
but that publication was a brief announcement with no description.
They gave a complete description in 1844, but changed the name
to Colossochelys atlas (because they felt that
"Megalochelys" was not sufficiently expressive of the fossil's
large size). A nomen nudum, or "naked name", i.e. a name
without description, invalidates the species name but not, it turns
out, names of genus or higher rank, so Megalochelys stayed,
but sivalensis was replaced by atlas. (And Rhodin et
al. get credit for first treating it under that combination
[Turtles and Tortoises of the World during the Rise and Global
Spread of Humanity].)
- Type specimen - Descriptions should refer to an actual
specimen, available for examination in a museum or other collection.
There are complicated rules for determining the type if the original is
lost or if there was no type specimen with the original description. The
taxonomy of types is rather complicated in itself; see
A
Compendium of Zoological Type Nomenclature: a Reference Source
by Neal L. Evenhuis, Bishop Museum Technical Report 41 (2008).
In a 1959 article on Linnaeus, William Stearn wrote, "Linnaeus himself,
must stand as the type of his Homo sapiens." Though it was an
off-hand comment, it suffices as nomenclatural act, and so Linnaeus,
buried beneath Uppsala Cathedral, is the lectotype (a later-selected
type specimen) for Homo sapiens. A 1994 publication reported
that Robert Bakker proposed to designate Edward Cope as the type, but
Bakker never actually published this. Besides, Stearn's designation has
priority.
Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Loch Ness monster) This
proposed name is not a valid scientific name because there is no type
specimen to go with it.
Tanysiptera nympha G.R. Gray, 1840
(red-breasted paradise kingfisher) This name is accepted as
valid even though underparts, wings, and rump of the mounted
specimen Gray worked from came from at least three other species of
birds, "artificially intermingled, to give the appearance of a
perfect specimen." There was enough of the head and body to
indicate a new species. [Dance, 1975, p. 77]
- Priority - The oldest valid published name is the one that
gets used. Today one need not look back further than the works of
Linnaeus, but Linnaeus and his students searched older works for the
oldest published names, going back even to Thucydides and Pliny the
Elder. Early publication is not invalidated even if there is some error
in the original name:
Cryptoclidus (plesiosaur from Oxford Clay)
The spelling was intended to be Cryptocleidus (from the Greek
for 'hidden clavicle'), but probably from a printing error, it
appeared, and now remains, without the 'e'.
Eschscholzia Chamisso, 1820 (California
poppy) Named for zoologist Johann Eschscholtz, but the 't' was omitted
from the publication.
Haliaeetus Savigny 1809 (bald eagle) This name is a
misspelling; the original description had an extra 'e', which must now
stay there.
Huernia (African Asclepiadaceae) Named after
Justus Heurnius, the first European to collect plants in South Africa,
but the "eu" was transposed in publication.
Penstemon (flowering plant) The name derives
from "five stamens", so some have called it Pentstemon
or Pentastemon, but the shorter name has priority.
Wisteria Nuttall (woody vine) Named for
Caspar Wistar, author of America's first anatomy textbook and successor
of Thomas Jefferson as head of the American Philosophical Society. But
Nuttall misspelled it with an "e", and the name is stuck.
Ambystoma or
Amblystoma Tschudi 1838 (mole salamanders)
Both names appeared in the original description. Amblystoma
("blunt mouth") was probably intended, but Ambystoma (and the
family Ambystomatidae) is the accepted name now. Amblystoma is
on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid names, but it still gets
quite a bit of use.
- There are means of overruling priority, if the newer name has come
into common use before the priority of the original name is recognized.
Scrotum humanum Brookes 1763 (Megalosaurus) Among the
oldest dinosaur bones discovered. So named because the condyles had a
testicular shape. Fortunately, the genus will continue to be known as
Megalosaurus because that name came into common use before it was
discovered that Scrotum was an earlier synonym. [Halstead &
Sargent, 1993, Modern Geol. 18:221-4]
- Sometimes the same name gets reused by people not aware of the
original use:
Argus Bohadsch 1761 (gastropod)
Argus Scopoli 1763 (lycaenid)
Argus Scopoli 1777 (satyrid)
Argus Poli 1791 (mollusk)
Argus Temminck 1807 (bird)
Argus Lamarck 1817 (hesperiid)
Argus Boisduval 1832 (lycaenid)
Argus Walckenaer 1836 (arachnid)
Argus Gray 1847 (mollusk)
Argus Gerhard 1850 (lycaenid)
Only the original name is valid. Since that name has priority, all the
rest are junior homonyms and needed to be renamed.
- However, the same name can be used for a plant and an animal.
There are hundreds of instances.
See hemihomonyms
for the long list (though it includes invalid names). The samples
given below are those I found before discovering that website.
Adonis L. 1753 (bird's-eye ranuncula) or
Adonis Gronow 1854 (fish)
Ammophila (grass or sphecid wasp)
Andromeda L. 1753 (wild rosemary) or
Andromeda Gistel 1834 (bupestrid
beetle)
Appendicularia DC. (plant) or
Appendicularia Fol, 1874 (free-swimming
tunicate). It is also the name of the class which the latter is
within.
Arenaria L. 1753 (Caryophyllaceae plant) or
Arenaria Brisson 1760 (bird)
Aotus (pea or monkey)
Arctophila (grass or syrphid fly)
Aristotelia (tree or moth)
Bartramia (moss or sandpiper)
Bullockia (Rubiaceae or catfish)
Canarium (tropical tree or sea snail)
Cannabis L. (hemp) or
Cannabis Blyth 1850 (bird)
Cecropia (tree or moth)
Cereus (cactus or sea anemone)
Chloris (grass or green finch)
Colocasia (taro or tussock moth)
Culcita (tree fern or echinoderm)
Cyanea (Hawaiian bellflower or jellyfish)
Dahlia Cav. (flower) or
Dahlia Pagenstecher, 1900 (moth)
Darwinia Rudge 1815 (shrub) or
Darwinia Pereyaslawzewa 1892 (flatworm)
Darwiniella Speg. 1888 (fungus) or
Darwiniella Anderson 1992 (barnacle). There is
also an illigimate name
Darwiniella Braas & Luckel, 1982 (orchid)
Dionaea (venus flytrap) or
Dionaea Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830
(fly)
Diphylleia Michx. 1803 (herbaceous plant) or
Diphylleia Massart 1920 (protist)
Donax Lour. (arrowroot relative) or
Donax L. (clam)
Dracunculus (herb or roundworm)
Drosophila (fungus, synonym of Typhrasa) or
Drosophila (fruit fly)
Dryas (shrub or butterfly) The shrub gave
its name to the Older and Younger Dryas geological periods.
Dugesia (composite or flatworm)
Eisenia (brown alga or earthworm)
Erica L. (heath) or
Erica Peckham and Peckham 1892 (jumping
spider)
Ficus (fig or gastropod)
Girardia S.F.Gray (red alga) or
Girardia Ball, 1974 (flatworm)
Hamadryas (buttercup or butterfly)
Hymenolepis (yarrow relative or
tapeworm)
Huberia DC. (Melatomataceae) or
Huberia Forel, 1890 (ant)
Hystrix (grass or porcupine)
Iris (flower or mantis)
Knightia (Proteaceae plant or fossil fish)
Lactarius (fungus or fish)
Leptonia (toadstool (now usu. a subgenus of
Entoloma) or rove beetle)
Lessonia (kelp or tyrant
flycatcher)
Linaria Mill. (toadflax) or
Linaria Bechstein 1802 (bird)
Liparis Rich. 1818 (orchid) or
Liparis Scopoli 1777 (fish)
Lophophora J.M.Coult. (cactus) or
Lophophora Möschler, 1890 (moth)
Lucilia Cass. (flower) or
Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830
(moth)
Mallotus Lour. (spurge) or
Mallotus Cuvier, 1829 (fish)
Mauritia (palm or gastropod)
Megaceros (hornwort or Pleistocene
deer)
Melanogaster Corda (false truffle) or
Melanogaster Rondani, 1857
(hover fly)
Morus (mulberry or gannet)
Myrmecia (alga or ant)
Oenanthe (water celery or bird)
Perilla L. (mint) or
Perilla Thorell, 1895 (spider)
Pieris (Japanese andromeda or butterfly)
Ponera Lindl. (orchid) or
Ponera Latreille 1804 (ant)
Prosopis (mesquite or solitary bee)
Prunella Linnaeus 1753 (Lamiaceae plant) or
Prunella Vieillot 1816 (bird)
Rhamphorhynchus (orchid or
pterosaur)
Ricinus (castor bean or bird louse)
Sirindhornia (orchid or moth)
Sphaerostoma (fossil gymnosperm or
trematode)
Stenella Syd. (1930) (fungus) or
Stenella Gray 1866 (dolphin)
Trichia von Haller 1768 (slime mold) or
Trichia Hartmann 1840 (snail)
Verticordia DC. (myrtle) or
Verticordia Sowerby 1844) (clam)
Zenkerella (African legume or African
rodent)
Zeus Minter & Diam. (1987) (fungus) or
Zeus L. (dory)
- There are even a few cases of duplicated binomials, where both
genus and species get reused in different kingdoms:
Adesmia muricata (Linnaeus, 1758)
(beetle) or
Adesmia muricata (Jacq.) DC.
(legume)
Agathis montana Shestakov, 1932 (wasp) or
Agathis montana de Laub. (kauri, a
conifer)
Asterina gibbosa (Pennant, 1777)
(starfish) or
Asterina gibbosa Gaillard
(fungus)
Baileya australis (Grote, 1881) (moth) or
Baileya australis Rydb. (desert
marigold, synonym of B. multiradiata)
Centropogon australis (White, 1790)
(waspfish) or
Centropogon australis Gleason
(bellflower)
Cuspidaria cuspidata (Olivi, 1792)
(bivalve) or
Cuspidaria cuspidata (M. Bieb.) Takht.
(wallflower, a synonym of Erysimum cuspidatum)
Ficus variegata Röding, 1798 (sea
snail) or
Ficus variegata Blume (fig)
Gaussia princeps (T. Scott, 1894)
(copepod) or
Gaussia princeps H.Wendl. (palm)
Myrmecia pyriformis Smith, 1858 (ant) or
Myrmecia pyriformis J.B.Petersen (green
algae)
Orestias elegans Garman, 1895 (pupfish) or
Orestias elegans Ridl. (orchid)
Thysanotus gracilis Jeannel, 1949 (ground
beetle) or
Thysanotus gracilis R.Br. (herb)
Tritonia pallida Stimpson, 1855
(nudibranch) or
Tritonia pallida Ker Gawl. (iris)
- Words and Letters - The names must be pronouncible words
(preferably Latinized), using Latin letters, with no diacritics or
punctuation (except hyphens can be used in some circumstances).
Some names stretch the pronouncibility.
Ekgmowechashala (early Miocene North American primate)
The name means "small fox-man" in Lakota
Lainodon orueetxebarriai Gheerbrant & Astibia,
1994 (Upper Cretaceous mammal) The 'tx' is pronounced like
English 'ch'.
Nqwebasaurus thwazi de Klerk et al. 2000 (Late
Jurassic/Early Cretaceous South African coelurosaur) It is pronounced:
N-(click with tongue)-KWE-bah-SAWR-us. If you are a real stickler for
pronunciation, the "nq" is a nasal postalveolar click. Nqweba is the
native Bantu name of the place where the dino was found.
Tahuantinsuyoa macantzatza Kullander 1986
(Peruvian cichlid) The genus is a Quechuan name of the Incan empire;
this page
has a pronunciation.
There are no official rules about how names should be
pronounced. Still, many names have right and wrong pronunciations
according to conventional usage.
Buddleja L. (shrub) Named after botanist
and rector Adam Buddle in an era when 'j' sometimes signified a long
'i' between two vowels. It is pronounced BUD-ul-EYE-uh.
- Exceptions - When an otherwise valid name would "disturb
stability or universality or cause confusion," the International
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature may choose another name instead.
There are plenty of other rules; see the
ICZN and specifically the
International
Code of Zoological Nomenclature for the complete set.
The rules above are for zoological nomenclature. The
rules for botanical
nomenclature are similar. Some exceptions are:
- For valid publication, after Jan. 1, 1935 (1958 for algae, 1996
for fossils), the plant name must be accompanied by a Latin
description or diagnosis, or by a reference to one.
- Publication of species or lower ranks must, after 1912 (1958 for
algae), be accompanied by an illustration showing essential
characters, or by a reference to one. After 2001, one such
illustration must represent the type specimen.
- The authors are given in taxonomic
monographs, and if a name is changed, both the original author (in
parentheses) and the revising author are named. For example:
Taphrina cerasi (Fuck.) Sad. The fungus
Taphrina cerasi was originally described by Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb
Leopold Fuckel and later redescribed by Richard Emil Benjamin
Sadebeck, so this listing now appears in some catalogs. The prefered
citation, though, is Taphrina cerasi (Fuckel) Sadeb.
- Zoology allows tautonyms (genus and species repeating the same
word, e.g. Bufo bufo), and botany does not. Some names
come close, though.
Ziziphus zizyphus (L.) H.Karst. (jujube)
- Zoologists do not like hyphens in names, although a very few have
snuck in:
Zygiella x-notata (Clerck 1757)
(silver-sided sector spider)
Polygonia c-album (Linnaeus 1758) (comma
butterfly)
Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus 1758) (the Setaceous
Hebrew character (a moth))
Astroscopus y-graecum (Cuvier 1829)
(southern stargazer fish)
Somateria mollissima v-nigrum Bonaparte, 1855
(Pacific eider)
Phelsuma v-nigra (Boettger 1913) (gecko)
Botany does not encourage hyphens, but allows them more freely:
Johnson-sea-linkia profunda N.J. Eiseman &
S.A. Earle, 1983 (seaweed)
- Rules for botany (at least since 1912) forbid generic names which
refer to morphological characters.
- The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and
plants goes into great length concerning the messy subject of
hybrids. Orchids present enough additional difficulties in this
area that they have their own Handbook on Orchid Nomenclature and
Registration.
- Botany allows names for ranks below subspecies: variety (var.),
subvariety (subvar.), form (f.), and subform (subf.). These need
not be nested within a subspecies or each other.
Traditionally, fungi have been grouped with plants (even though, as
later discovered, they are more closely related to animals). In 2011,
this grouping was formalized, with the botanical code (ICBN) renamed
the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and
plants (ICN).
Because fungi often have very different sexual and asexual forms, the
same species of fungus could have two different scientific names, one
for the sexual form and one for the asexual. This rule, however, has
changed (with much gnashing of teeth) as of 2011, because DNA analysis
makes it easier to recognize two forms as the same species.
There is also a separate International Code of Nomenclature of
Prokaryotes governed by the International Committee on Systematics of
Prokaryotes (ICSP). It has published the Approved Lists of Bacterial
Names, listing all names valid as of 1 January 1980; it serves as a
starting point for adding new names. "(Approved Lists 1980)" may be used
in place of an author citation for names on the lists.
Other rules particular to prokaryotes are:
- Names must be published in International Journal of Systematic
Bacteriology or International Journal of Systematic and
Evolutionary Microbiology to be valid.
- Subgenus and subspecies names, when present, are labelled "subgen."
and "subsp."
- Prokaryote names must avoid existing names of plants and
animals. However, there are several exceptions where a bacterial
genus shares it name with a plant (or fungus), animal, or both.
Here are cases where the name covers three phyla (listing
bacterium, animal, plant/fungus in that order).
Gordonia Stackebrandt et al. 1989 or
Gordonia Newton, 1893 (Permian synapsid) or
Gordonia J.Ellis (Theaceae)
Lawsonia McOrist et al. 1995 or
Lawsonia Sharp, 1873 (beetle) or
Lawsonia L. (Lythraceae)
Leptonema Hovind-Hougen 1983 or
Leptonema Guérin, 1843 (caddisfly) or
Leptonema A.Juss (Phyllanthaceae)
Moorella Collins et al. 1994 or
Moorella Cameron, 1913 (parasitoid wasp) or
Moorella P.Rag.Rao & D.Rao
(saprophytic fungus)
Morganella Fulton, 1943 or
Morganella Cockerell, 1897 (scale insect) or
Morganella Zeller (1948) (puffball)
Rothia Georg and Brown 1967 or
Rothia Westwood, 1877 (moth) or
Rothia Pers. (legume)
- The Code recommends that if a species is named after a person, the
person should in some way be connected with it.
- A name should be rejected "whose application is likely to lead to
accidents endangering health or life or both or of serious economic
consequences."
See also Trüper 1999 in the references.
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