> Evidently taxonomic procedures are
> redundant or not known and the new ICZN code might as well not exist.
To clarify - as regards the status of Echiura, or (the other recent one)
Pogonophora, of course taxonomic procedures must be followed when
contemplating a reduction of a phylum to family-level in another phylum. The
explanation should have enough detail of the history of the names (or
provide sources for same) to help people understand how the decision was
reached. Otherwise we have to take it on faith - and science and faith don't
go together. Also, and crucially, the code tightly regulates priority of family
names of which there are several in the echiurans.
Subsequent to a 1997 molecular paper (the authority used by Miner et al. in
their larval paper on Urechis caupo) Nishikawa examined the dates of family
and genus names in Echiura. The relevant ones are as follows:
Thalassema Pallas, 1774
Echiurus Guerin-Meneville, 1831
Thalassematidae Forbes & Goodsir, 1841
Echiuridae Quatrefages, 1847
If he is correct, and if it is appropriate that Echiura be moved into Annelida,
and if it is to be at family level - three big 'ifs', with the last as far as I know
yet to be demonstrated -, then the family name for spoon worms / former
echiurans is most likely the oldest, the Thalassematidae, and not the
Echiuridae.
So there you go! An alternative viewpoint. Unless I've overlooked something
obvious (entirely possible), or there is Commission decision stabilising on
Echiuridae then there is a case for arguing it is not the valid name. My
point is that the minutiae of genera and species names are constantly
analysed. I would like to see the same detailed reasoning accompanying
major changes to the scope of family names proposed from any of the
variously-derived new classifications that we find so irresistible. Above the
family level can be a degree of anarchy and creativity, and nobody minds
much; at and below there is more constraint. When the two coincide we
must be careful.
Nishikawa, T. 1998. Nomenclatural remarks on the family-group names of
the Phylum Echiura.— Proceedings of the Biological Society of
Washington, 111:249-256
--
Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>
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