Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Diceratops becomes Diceratus

In the newest issue of the Journal of Paleontology* Octavio Mateus clears up the preoccupation of the ceratopsians names Diceratops (Lull, 1905; right) and Microceratops (Bohlin, 1953).

Diceratops
the ceratopsian (Lull, 1905) is preoccupied by the Hymenoptera insects (one of the larger orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasp, bees and ants; Foerster, 1868). He changes the genus of the ceratopsian Diceratops to Diceratus (Greek di  ‘‘two,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’).

Microceratops the ceratopsian (Bohlin, 1953) is the junior homonym of the ichneumon wasp from Madagascar (Seyrig, 1952). This genus has been renamed Microceratus (Greek micro  ‘‘small,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’).

Be sure to check out Octavio's entire paper!

* Mateus, Octavio. 2008. Two ornithischian dinosaurs renamed: Microceratops Bohlin 1953 and Diceratops Lull 1905. Journal of Paleontology 82(2): 423.

Ref.s

Bohlin, B. 1953. Fossil reptiles from Mongolia and Kansu. In Sino-Swedish Expedition Publications, 37:1–113.

Foerster, A. 1868. Synopsis der Familien und Gattungen der Ichneumonen. Verhandlungen des Naturhistorischen Vereins der Preussischen Rheinlande und Westfalens, 25:135–221.

Lull, R. 1905. Restoration of the horned dinosaur Diceratops. American Journal of Science, 20:420–422.

Seyrig, A. 1952. Les Ichneumonides de Madagascar. IV Ichneumonidae Cryptinae. Me´moires de l’Acade´mie Malgache, 19:1–213.

1 comment:

John Conway said...

Those gawdamned bugs stealing out names and our wo... well, names!

I like the new names, they're close to the originals, and they roll off the tongue.