ICZN surprise

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

David Marjanovic (david.marjanovic@gmx.at) wrote:

<So... it looks like *Sinovenator changii*, *Halimornis thompsoni* and so on 
can and must still be emended even under the 2000 version of the ICZN. :-) :-)
:-)>

The ICZN still states thusly:

  "32.5. Spellings that must be corrected (incorrect original spellings).

    "32.5.1. If there is in the original publication itself, without recourse
to
     any external source of information, clear evidence of an inadvertent
error,
     such as a lapsus calami or a copyist's or printer's error, it must be
     corrected. Incorrect transliteration or latinization, or use of an
     inappropriate connecting vowel, are not to be considered inadvertent
     errors.

      "32.5.1.1. The correction of a spelling of a name in a publisher's or
       author's corrigendum issued simultaneously with the original work or as
a
       circulated slip to be inserted in the work (or if in a journal, or work
       issued in parts, in one of the parts of the same volume) is to be
       accepted as clear evidence of an inadvertent error.

   "Examples. If an author in proposing a new species-group name were to state
    that he or she was naming the species after Linnaeus, yet the name was
    published as *ninnaei*, it would be an incorrect original spelling to be
    corrected to *linnaei*. *Enygmophyllum* is not an incorrect original
    spelling (for example of *Enigmatophyllum*) solely on the grounds that it
    was incorrectly transliterated or latinized."

  If the correct transliteration for, say, *changii* is *changae,* it cannot be
emmended because the authors forgot to note the correct feminine form. If the
name were *langii* instead, and the name honored Chang Mee-Man, then YES, it
can be emended to *changae,* since this would allow the incorrect error from
32.5.1.1 to be fixed. Agreement in gender with the nominative must be
_initially_, at publication, it cannot be changed afterward, especially since
January 1st, 2000. Even if the paper were errata'd, to my knowledge.

  So, when the authors cited produced the following changes:

"*Scutellum flabelliferum _endorfense_* Basse 1996
*Otarion (Aulacopleura) _letmathense_* Basse & Lemke 1996
*Gudralisium _gruenense_* Basse 1998
*Dechenella _pruemensis_* Basse 2002
*Lauchellum _gerolsteinense_* Basse 2002
*Tolkienia? _wiltzensis_* Basse 2003
*Rheingoldium _feldbergense_* Basse 2003
*Gudralisium _lindlarense_* Basse 2003
*Hippotherium kammerschmittae* Kaiser, Bernor, Franzen, Scott, & Solounias
2003"

  They were doing so improperly and have added

ICZN Article 31.1.2 reads:

  "31.1.2. A species-group name, if a noun in the genitive case (see Article
11.9.1.3) formed directly from a modern personal name, is to be formed by
adding to the stem of that name -i if the personal name is that of a man, -orum
if of men or of man (men) and woman (women) together, -ae if of a woman, and
-arum if of women; the stem of such a name is determined by the action of the
original author when forming the genitive."

  The exception being that corrections have to agree with Art. 32.5, and in my
reading of it, it does not. Thus, the authors add to the synonymy by coining
erroneous emmendations. No gender emmendation can, it seems, be made using my
reading of the ICZN. Incentive to be more careful for whom or for which gender
you're coining names, eh? Some of the vagueness may permit _application_ but
not, I think, just making emmendations as if the language of the text had not
changed between 3rd and 4th editions.

  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)


                
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/