Re: Dinosaur Genera List corrections #154

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Mon, 1 Jan 2001, Tim Williams wrote:

> _Archaeoraptor_ may no longer be a _nomen nudum_, but is it necessarily a
> valid genus?  What diagnostic characters does Storrs Olson provide for the
> caudal series IVPP V 12330 of _Archaeoraptor liaoningensis_?  If the caudal
> vertebrae show no diagnostic characters below the level of Dromaeosauridae
> or Maniraptora, then _Archaeoraptor liaoningensis_ may be dismissed as a
> _nomen vanum_.

I remember asking this list a while ago what the difference between _nomen
dubium_ and _nomen vanum_ was. The upshot seemed to be that _nomen vanum_
didn't really mean much, and _nomen dubium_ should be used instead. Is
this right?

At any rate, it seems that if _A. liaoningensis_ and _M. zhaoianus_ are
based on the same *individual*, what goes for one goes for the other.
Unless I'm mistaken, if Olson's designation is to be invalidated it must
be in some other fashion.

_____________________________________________________________________________
T. MICHAEL KEESEY
 Home Page               <http://dinosauricon.com/keesey>
  The Dinosauricon        <http://dinosauricon.com>
   personal                <keesey@bigfoot.com> --> <tmk@dinosauricon.com>
    work, binary files      <mkeesey@dcentgroup.com>
     Dinosauricon-related    <dinosaur@dinosauricon.com>
      AOL Instant Messenger   <Ric Blayze>
       ICQ                     <77314901>
        Yahoo! Messenger        <Mighty Odinn>