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Re: Monotypic genera and the PhyloCode
From: "T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>
Furthermore, as pointed out above, there are hardly any cases where a genus
is
unequivocally monotypic. And even where it may seem to be, there may be
literature that is being overlooked. And even if that is not the case,
there
may be a desire to place future discoveries in a new species of that genus.
Of course, if _Minmi_ were converted to a clade or used as a species
address,
it could still be used; it's not as though there is a proposal to convert
only
non-monotypic genera.
All right, good point. In reality there is probably a sp. out there
somewhere for every supposedly monotypic genus, throwing a wrench in the
works. So there goes that idea.
Still, there ought to be a way to conserve the names of currently monotypic
genera in a meaningful way. Like as a stem group based on a type specimen
and excluding all other type specimens unless they are found to actually
represent the same species. Or as a stem group based on the autapomorphies
of that type specimen, in such a way that if a new specimen was found to
have some, but not all, of those apomorphies then it could be assigned to a
new species within the same "genus"... but then the definition of the
"genus" would have to change to only include those apomorphies shared by
*both* species. Hmmm. I guess this is a discussion for that other list now.
Even if it's just a clade address or a marker or something, I still think
using an existing generic name is preferable to a number, both for
historical and aesthetic reasons (what's the point of naming a species
melanolimnetes if it can't have Eucritta in front of it? :)).
Mike D
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