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Re: The validity of Pachyrhamphus
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Mike Hanson <mhanson54@comcast.net> wrote:
> I've been reworking the Pterosaur Species List and in the process noticed the
> following:
> Fitzinger (1843) proposed the name *Pachyrhamphus* for *Pterodactylus
> crassirostris* Goldfuss, 1831 since the previous generic name proposed by
> Giebel in 1852, *Brachytrachelus*, was preoccupied by a genus of Circulionid
> beetle (what else would you expect?) named by SchÃherr in 1847. Later on
> Wagner (1861) proposes *Scaphognathus* since he believes *Pachyrhamphus* is
> preoccupied by a Tyrannid flycatcher named by Gray in 1840. The only problem
> is that it appears the genus given by Gray was spelled *Pachyramphus*
> (without the h after the r) and "Pachyrhamphus" used in this sense was only a
> common misspelling which had no real nomenclatural significance. So,
> supposing that *Pachyrhamphus* has not undergone a 50-year period of disuse
> (since I don't know whether or not this is the case), does this mean that
> *Scaphognathus* is a junior synonym and should be abandoned in favour of
> *Pachyrhamphus*, or is there some justification in not doing so due to the
> extreme similarity of the two
names and the confusion caused by misspellings? If not, then the only way to
justify the validity of *Scaphognathus* is to determine if it is a *nomen
oblitum* or petition the ICZN to reject *Pachyrhamphus* in favour of
*Scaphognathus*.
Interesting.
AFAIK, "Pachyramphus" and "Pachyrhamphus" would be considered
different names under the ICZN. I would guess that _Pachyrhamphus_
Fitzinger 1843 is a nomen oblitum, but I suppose it should be looked
into.
--
T. Michael Keesey
Director of Technology
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