Re: What happens if we purposely make a taxon non-eponymous?

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

   I don't think people usually make taxa non-eponymous on purpose.  It 
just happens.  Siphonophora is a genus of millipedes, but also Order 
Siphonophora is used for hydrozoan "siphonophores".  The problem was just 
basically ignored until 1994 when I proposed the eponymous Order 
Physophorida for the cnidarian siphonophores.  Furthermore, as it turned 
out, the diplopod Order Siphonophorida was sunk into Order Typhlogenida, so 
the possibility of confusion seems to be minimal even without any ICZN 
action.  How PhyloCode will deal with this (since cladists recognize such 
large numbers of intermediate taxa) is their problem.  I never got an answer 
to this when I posed it to the PhyloCode list last year.
    As for Ornithosuchia, I believe Ornithosuchus will end up back in that 
taxon, so not too worried about that one (even less so since it is an 
intermediate taxon which I would just code as an informal "ornithosuchian" 
clade anyway).
     I certainly think Phylocoders are wise in avoiding typified names 
which are not anchored on the eponymous genera.  However, I think this is 
far from being among their more serious problems.  Like Benton, I don't see 
how all their problems can be overcome, and they are pushing an unmanagably 
large boulder up an extremely steep incline.  I personally think it is an 
exercise in futility, but I guess a lot of people think some of my goals are 
futile as well.  Only time will tell which boulder is really the most 
unmanagable.  Either way, there are no easy answers.
            ----- Ken
******************************************
Mickey Mortimer wrote:
> Subject: What happens if we purposely make a taxon non-eponymous?
> Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 19:40:17 -0800
>
> For instance, say I name a non-neoceratosaur "Neoceratosaurus", a 
> non-sauropod "Sauropus" or a non-marginocephalian "Marginocephale".  This 
> makes the clade non-eponymous, which isn't allowed.  But the ICZN can't 
> reject my name for that reason.  Will that force the renaming of the clades 
> in question (sure to piss a lot of people off), or could you petition the 
> ICZN for another genus name?  Or would people just put up with it because 
> the clades weren't named after the genus?



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