Roewer award for Bad Taxonomy

[Christopher Taylor <ck.taylor@auckland.ac.nz>]

Hi there,

    Thank you to those who replied to me on Ornithocheirus. Inspired by
that, and by a couple of weeks of trying to transcribe and organise details
from a particularly grievious early-1900s arachnologist, I here ask for
nominations for the vertebrate palaeontology section of the Roewer Award for
Bad Taxonomy (named to commemorate said arachnologist).
    This award is to be given to the taxonomist whose work has most
contributed to the undying suffering of those who follow after. Mere
erection of nomina dubia should not be the sole factor, but blatant
disregard of the laws of nomenclature, biology or even physics.
    Note that to keep this thread as a 'look how far we've come' topic, and
not a mud-slinging contest, nominations should be limited to workers who are
deceased, retired or otherwise highly unlikely to be informed of this ;).

    At present, I'm inclining to a joint award to Messrs. Cope and Marsh,
whose setermination to outdo each other lead not only to a large number of
nomina dubia, but perfunctory, spurious (promotional notes are not
publications) or back-dated publications which make it almost impossible to
establish priorities.

    Cheers,

        Christopher Taylor