Re: other rexes

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.ATTGIS.COM>]

 From: Stang1996@aol.com
 > 
 > I believe that another rex is Aliwalia rex.
 > 
 > Aliwalia, Othneilia, and Edmarka brings up the subject of adjectives agreing
 > in gender with the noun that they are describing.  Shouldn't The species
 > names of these two dinosaurs be regina instead of rex? 

In this case 'rex' isn't an adjective, it is a *noun*.  In particular
it is what the Code calls a "noun in apposition".  No gender agreement
rules apply to this case.  And 'regina' is a *different* noun, with
a different meaning.

Thus, the names are correct as they stand.  Thus Othnielia rex
means something like "Othniel's lady, the king", and Tyrannosaurus
rex means "tyrant lizard, the king", NOT "king of tyrant lizards".

 > Or, shouldn't the
 > generic titles be changed to Aliwalus and Edmarkus? 

Absolutely not.  The Code pretty much forbids all such changes.
Only if it can be demonstrated that the spelling in the original
publication was an actual unintentional error (like a printer's
error) is a change of spelling allowed, no matter how inappropriate
or "incorrect" the actual spelling is.

 > I would think that the
 > first option should be the action taken because a species describes a genus
 > (grammatically speaking), so it should change its gender according to the
 > gender of the genus.

If indeed the species names in question *were* adjectives, then
the Code *requires* the correct gender form, and establishes that
an incorrect gender ending is to be considered a spelling error,
and corrected as such.

Also, if a species with an adjective as its species name is transfered
from a genus of one gender to a genus of another, the ending is to
be automatically adjusted as appropriate without changing the cited
author or date of publication.


But these rule do not apply when the species name is a noun in
apposition.  The Code recognizes three categories of species names,
adjectives, genitives (possessives), and nouns in apposition.
Only adjectives have to agree in gender with the genus name.

Genitives must have the correct Lain form for the entities refered
to. Thus the ending in Maiasaura peeblesorum is masculine plural
because it refers to two (or more) people, at least one of whom
is a male (in this case Mr. and Mrs Peebles, who owned the land
on which the fossils were found).  This is so, even though Maiasaura
is a feminine genus name.

Nouns in apposition are simply used in their "dictionary" form
with no declensional adjustments at all.

swf@elsegundoca.attgis.com              sarima@netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.