Re: VERY Stupid question, but I dont know the answer...

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Lauri B wrote:

> I think that when a family is named, it is automatically (in many cases)
> named after the first creature that is discovered, named, and that belongs
> to no known family.

That is very often the case, but there are instances where the oldest
genus in a family is not the eponymous genus. Tyrannosauridae, for
example, includes _Deinodon_, a dubious genus which was named almost 50
years before _Tyrannosaurus_. Actually, since _Deinodon_ was placed in a
new family, Deinodontidae, that's probably the correct name by ICZN rules,
but I never see anyone use it. A less complicated example would be
Allosauridae, which includes _Antrodemus_, a dubious genus published 7
years before _Allosaurus_. (There is no Antrodemidae -- not sure where
_Antrodemus_ was originally place....)

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