Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

As a person who has named a number of dino genera and species I can say that the reason there is no concise explanation for naming paleospecies is because there is none. It is very ad hoc and depends entirely on the circumstances on hand.

What is also true is that there are no firm standards for naming paleospecies. As Raup and Stanley (who I knew well at JHU pointed out, a âspecies is a species if a competent specialist says it is.â Thus Chasmosaurus is currently split into C. belli and C. russell which are not stratigraphically separated based solely on one small frill characteristic equally split between a dozen skulls, which is equally possibly sexual dimorphism, so it is a toss of coin what to do. Which is fine. And some put all Archaeopteryx in one species, others in multiple species and even genera, and there is no way to tell which is correct, and determining such may never be possible. A very rare case of actually having solid data for what dinosaur species are is Triceratops, because of a uniquely large sample of distinctive morphs in an exceptionally well documented stratigraphic sequence. Such will probably not be available for any other dinosaur for a very long time.

GSPaul

-----Original Message-----
From: Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu>
To: Thomas Richard Holtz <tholtz@umd.edu>
Cc: mickey_mortimer111@msn.com <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>; Gregory Paul <gsp1954@aol.com>; Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Sent: Sat, Jul 25, 2020 3:47 pm
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

It's the icing on the cake...

Not to get too off topic, but I am curious, how *do* paleontologists create names? Are names decided on immediately when a specimen is suspected to be a new taxon? Are they done at the last minute or does the decision vary depending on who is involved (e.g. do lead authors usually get the privilege of naming or can names be decided on collectively?)

I've never really heard a concise explanation of the taxonomic naming process, even when I studied paleo in college.

Thomas Yazbeck

From: Thomas Richard Holtz <tholtz@umd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 2:03 PM
To: Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu>
Cc: mickey_mortimer111@msn.com <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>; Gregory Paul <gsp1954@aol.com>; Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

Very few people learn Classical languages anymore, and especially not in non-European countries. Hence "Confuciusornis" rather than "Confuciornis".

That said, the etymologically unsound name or the inappropriateness of it with -avis is the least of all problems here.

On Sat, Jul 25, 2020 at 12:21 PM Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu> wrote:

I'm curious about why the authors of Oculudentavis (just typing it feels awful...) didn't realize how bad a name it was. Couldn't somebody have spent an hour making sure it was at least linguistically correct? I'm not a professional paleontologist/zoologist - how long does it typically take to come up with a name for a new taxon?

Thomas Yazbeck

From: dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu> on behalf of Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2020 2:41 AM
To: mickey_mortimer111@msn.com <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>; Gregory Paul <gsp1954@aol.com>
Cc: dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] RETRACTION: Oculudentavis, new smallest known Mesozoic bird in amber from Cretaceous of Myanmar

On Thursday, July 23, 2020, 05:15:17 PM UTC, Gregory Paul <gsp1954@aol.com> wrote:

> Me thinks this paper should be reinstated with a major correction to the errant parts.

Hmm, I found some small errors in one of my 2018 papers. Can I retract it now and then have a different version of it re-appear with the errors corrected..? Ach, but how to expunge the hardcopies from the printed version of the journal in university libraries all over the world..?

Yes I am being facetious (but I didn't get the impression that GSP was).

Again, a paper that's published cannot be 'disappeared.' It exists from now on, in perpetuity. That's the whole point of the new electronic publishing rules too.

It is a good point that it's a binomial name, and there's nothing wrong with the specific name. It's just that generic name which is going to win awards for being one of the worst of all time.

Paul P.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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