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

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Gesendet:ÂSamstag, 25. Juli 2020 um 23:17 Uhr
Von:Â"Ben Creisler" <bcreisler@gmail.com>

> The term "nomen dubium" is NOT a taxonomic term. It is often used to refer to 
> a situation in which fossil material that was given a name that met the ICZN 
> requirements to be available is later judged to be nondiagnostic or 
> subdiagnostic to a species level for purposes of taxonomy. So in taxonomy, 
> the specimen is "nondiagnostic" or "undiagnostic" and does not represent a 
> diagnosable or definable taxon--if somebody gave it a name, the name is a 
> "nomen dubium."

How does that make it a nomenclatural term as opposed to a taxonomic one?

> If a paper is retracted, in principle, the information or data that it 
> contained should not be cited and used in technical literature.

If a paper is retracted, the publisher and/or the authors wish that the 
information or data that it contained should not be cited and used in technical 
literature. The Code, on the other hand, does not know retraction.

> In the case of the retracted Oculudentavis paper, the original Nature article 
> may be adequate to make the name available under the ICZN, but the paper has 
> become taxonomically unusable because it was retracted (as opposed to simply 
> corrected). Thus the name Oculudentavis can no longer be treated as being 
> associated with a diagnostic taxonomic description, making it another kind of 
> "nomen dubium."

If we assume that the diagnosis was retracted because it's wrong, there is 
still no reason to treat it as no longer existing*. For obvious reasons, 
diagnoses don't need to be correct. As far as the Code is concerned, any 
"description or definition that states in words characters that are purported 
to differentiate the taxon" (Art. 13.1.1) fulfills the requirement.

* Unless of course if we somehow extend to publishers the Commission's right to 
suppress published works, in which case the diagnosis doesn't matter anyway.