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Re: Megapnosaurus and the ethics of zoological nomenclature
In a message dated 2/2/02 11:32:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, bh480@scn.org
writes:
<< 3. A zoologist should not publish a new replacement name
(a nomen novum) or other substitute name for a junior
homonym when the author of the latter is alive; that
author should be informed of the homonymy and be allowed a
reasonable time (at least a year) in which to establish a
substitute
name. >>
I followed this guideline in the late 1980s when I discovered that the then
newly proposed sauropod name Protognathus was preoccupied (by yes, another
BEETLE). I wrote He a letter, but after a year I received no reply, so I went
ahead and called it Protognathosaurus in MM #2. Perhaps the letter never
reached He in China; I don't know. But at least I gave it a shot before doing
the rename.
Regarding Protognathus, what caused me (and Tracy Ford, who was with me at
the American Museum in NY at the time) to look the name up in a nomenclator
was that Protognathus just seemed too "simple" a name; I had the feeling that
someone somewhere had already proposed it. The same alarm bells should have
gone off with Syntarsus, but I suppose everyone had already figured that
someone else had checked the name and found it was clean.