Re: E. becklessi/becklesii/becklessii

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Tommy Bradley (htomsirveaux@mybluelight.com) wrote:

<I am working on Echinodon and I found several different spellings for the
type species _E. becklessi_.  Which one is right?  Which spelling did Owen
use?  Whom is the name honoring? Any help would be most appreciated.>

  Owen designated the animal *Echinodon becklesii*, for Samuel H. Beckles;
convention in those days (and rarely but still done today, though not the
same way) is to decline the name as ending in -ius then adding -i to that,
dropping the -us, so you get a -ii ending for names. Today, they sometimes
erroneously add two -i endings without the need to; the ICZN suggests just
adding -i unless you actually write the whole name in Latin form.

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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