Re: Platecarpus tympaniticus - how to analyze a nomen dubium

["Harris, Jerald" <jharris@dixie.edu>]

>It's worse than you think.  So far as the PhyloCode is concerned
authorship of the rank-based taxon and the homonymous clade are
completely separate, so whatever definition I used of Ceratopsia when
defining it as a PhyloCode-govered clade, it would be Ceratopsia
Taylor 201X.  The code suggests an authority-mentioning scheme that is
something like Ceratopsia Taylor 201X [Marsh 1890], which goes some
way to towards addressing this.

     This, more than anything, is what keeps me from supporting PhyloCode at 
all.  Because of this, any other positive benefits it may provide are 
subordinated to egos -- there will be this massive, pointless rush for people 
to get their names as the ones listed after any particular clade name.  Sorry, 
but that's bullshit.  There are plenty of well-established names already; the 
LEAST PhyloCode could do would be to give workers of the past their due credit 
rather than turn nomenclature into a contest to see who can get the most clade 
name notches on their belts.  I honestly cannot believe that people that call 
themselves "scientists" let this kind of unscientific crap through.  At the 
very least, the original author should get star billing and any emender gets 
the parenthetical annotation, not the reverse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry D. Harris
Director of Paleontology
Dixie State College
Science Building
225 South 700 East
St. George, UT  84770   USA
Phone: (435) 652-7758
Fax: (435) 656-4022
E-mail: jharris@dixie.edu
 and     dinogami@gmail.com
http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/


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