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RE: Ichthyornis paper
Christopher Taylor wrote:
The frontispiece is a reconstruction of _Ichthyornis_ based on the
results of the paper.
I agree, it's a nice illustration. I wouldn't have described the
_Ichthyornis_ as "hover-feeding", though: its feet are in the water!
Overall, it makes *very* interesting reading.
Note, however, that under the ICZN, the
correct name for this species would be _I. anceps_, not _I. dispar_ - while
_I. dispar_ is the type species of the genus, _anceps_ was named earlier,
and so takes priority even though it was originally in a different genus.
Julia begs to differ, and gives her reasons on p.21. Citing Article 67.2 of
the ICZN and Article 11.8 of the draft PhyloCode, she claims that because
_I. anceps_ was not one of the original nominal species of the genus
_Ichthyornis_ (its original name was _Graculavus anceps_, before Marsh
shifted it over to _Ichthyornis_), _I. dispar_ is the valid name of the
single _Ichthyornis_ species, as well as the type species.
However, as far as I
can see from a brief skim of the paper (so I may be missing something),
there is nothing to directly say that it is *not* part of the crown.
Indeed, the featured cladograms put _Austinornis_ in an unresolved
trichotomy with two extant galliform genera.
In such
a case, I personally would have preferred to call it 'Galliformes incertae
sedis' and so avoid making a whole new name to keep track of
The Pan- prefix is mandated by the PhyloCode for stem clades. Thus, the
erection of Pangalliformes was inevitable.
Tim
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