X-Nico

9 unusual facts about International Code of Zoological Nomenclature


AnimalBase

The nomenclatural status of names has been verified under the current edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Cystiscidae

Rule of priority of the ICZN require that the name Cystiscidae must be used, but this is unfortunate because the type specimen of the type species is lost, and that species is poorly known.

Haminoea

The ICZN finally made a decision that the correct spelling is Haminoea.

Megalosauridae

Because of this traditionally polyphyletic use, some scientists, such as Paul Sereno, reject the family name Megalosauridae in favor of Torvosauridae (coined by Jensen in 1985), despite the fact that Megalosauridae has priority under the ICZN rules governing family-level names in zoology.

Poecile

The genus name has traditionally been treated as feminine (giving name endings such as cincta); however, this was not specified by the original genus author Johann Jakob Kaup, and under the ICZN the genus name must therefore be treated by default as masculine, giving name endings such as cinctus.

Rissoina sagraiana

The species was first published by D’Orbigny (1842) under the name Rissoina sagra in the caption of the plate and thereby made available under the provisions of article 12.2.7 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature; the complete description was published years later (1846) under the name Rissoina sagraiana and the publication in parts was completed only in 1853.

Snowfinch

and 50.7. in the third and fourth editions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the genus Pyrgilauda was thus validly established by Bonaparte as a possible snowfinch genus name – even though he did not intend to – because many authors after J. Verreaux used it for these birds, and not for the sparrow-larks.

Tonnidae

This is in agreement with the action of Thiele (1925) who placed Tonnidae and Cassidae under "Tonnacea", therefore acting as first reviser under ICZN article 24.

Tornidae

Family names cited with two dates (the second one in parentheses) are those ruled by Article 40(2) of ICZN.


Carangoides ciliarius

There is a possibility that Peter Forsskål described and named the species earlier, in 1775, which would make him the correct author under ICZN rules.

Melolontha

Étienne Louis Geoffroy used Melolontha as a genus name (1762), but his book has been suppressed by the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, and the authority for the name is the later (1775) publication by Johan Christian Fabricius.

Subgenus

In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea (Cypraea) tigris Linnaeus, which belongs to the subgenus Cypraea of the genus Cypraea.


see also