really bad descriptions

[Monique D. Reed]

For a nice discussion of things that got described as other than they
actually were, check out Stephen Jay Gould's book "Wonderful Life".
Many of the organisms in the Burgess Shale were pigeonholed into
known taxa when they were first described.  If I remember correctly,
the most egregious example was the feeding appendage of some very
strange arthropod that was described as the back end of a shrimp-like
creature; the mouth of the same arthropod was described as a sort of
jellyfish!

Monique Reed
Herbarium Botanist
Biology Department
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77803
http://csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/tfplab/reedhome.htm