Re: An odd paper request

[tjshaw@ualberta.ca]

Quoting "Dawid Mazurek" <dawidmazurek@wp.pl>:

> I just recalled - I read once an article (can give a reference if  
> needed), in which the author erected some new taxa based on trace  
> fossils only. He didn't erect ichnotaxons, but real body-based taxa.  
> Though there were no body fossils known, he figured out that the  
> trace fossils in the examples studied give enough information on the  
> morphology of a trackmaker to diagnose the animal correctly. What do  
> You think about that?
> DM

Actually if you have a reference for it that would be great. As for  
the author arguing that he had enough information to name a body-based  
taxa from a track it kind of seems overtly confident of him (which  
granted could just be me being over confident). According to the code  
even if somebody was to find body fossils for these tracks the tracks  
would still be treated as an ichnotaxa and have no priority over the  
name of the body fossils. A good case for this would be Soergel's work  
on Chirotherium tracks in which he predicted a track maker though body  
fossils were not known (I recommend Thulborn's Dinosaur Tracks for a  
good summery of the previously held beliefs including an illustration  
of Owen's infamous cross stepping amphibian). When Krebs discovered  
Ticinosuchus ferox (I love that name) and argued that it was a match  
for Soergel's predicted trackmaker he was not required to name it  
after the tracks (this is actually the example cited in the ICZN).  
What does happen, and is allowed to happen though probably not the  
best practise, is the naming of tracks from body taxa such as  
Tyrannosauropus (yes it is a large theropod print from the right time  
and location but still). It is basically saying that our knowledge of  
the fossil record is so complete that I can with out a doubt say that  
this animal and only this animal left these types of tracks (me and  
one of my committee members can even agree that Tetrapodosaurus tracks  
were made by ankylosaurs as opposed to ceratopsians).
  -T (if you could caulk my long windedness up to passion for both  
the subject and good debate instead of knowitalism that would be great)