more about scientific names - was Re: [Lexicog] Linnaean classifications in MDF

[Kenneth C. Hill]

This isn't really true. The rules for priority in scientific naming mean
that any scientific name is subject to change if it is found that some
author gave the taxon a name earlier than the generally recognized one. In
preparing the Hopi Dictionary we had the assistance of a panel of experts
on taxonomy at the University of Missouri Botanical Gardens to provide us
with up-to-date botanical taxonomic terms, but even among the experts
there were some problems, and the scientific names used in the Hopi
Dictionary represent simply the best we could do at the time.

The rules of taxonimic priority are quitre strict and even very well known
names can be changed. A famous example is the creature earlier known by
the public as "Brontosaurus" is now officially "Apatosaurus."

--Ken

--- Mike Maxwell <maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:

> Susan Gehr wrote:
>
> > I'm tracking scientific names in the Karuk dictionary, and we've got
> entries
> > for which the scientific names were acquired in the 1950's and
> earlier.
> >
> > I know that some names will have changed since then.
>
> I don't know anything about the databases you mention.  But as for the
> scientific names changing, I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised.
> The whole purpose of the scientific name system is to decide on a name
> once and for all, so that identifications will be clear, and scientific
> literature written in different times and places will be comparable.
> That isn't to say that they never make a mistake, but at least in the
> case of living fauna (as opposed to fossils), mistakes are quite rare.
> --
> 	Mike Maxwell
> 	Linguistic Data Consortium
> 	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu
>
>



		
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