Misnomers

[Michael Ohl]

My favourite misnomer is Podium sexdentatum Taschenberg, a large
neotropical digger wasp, whose female has seven prominent clypeal
teeth. This is a remarkable lapsus since at first sight even numbers
of such large structures can be easily distinguished from uneven
numbers.

A spectacular example of the common mis-understanding of the
principles of biological nomenclature appeared in the German popular
newspaper DIE ZEIT a couple of months ago. The author explained that
the skeletons of the dinosaur genus Oviraptor were sometimes found on
or in the vicinity of dinosaur eggs, which was interpreted as a case
of egg robbery and caused the genus name. New results have shown that
Oviraptor died while nesting, and, thus, the author concluded,
paleontologists are forced to rename Oviraptor in order to give it a
more suitable name.


Michael



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Dr. Michael Ohl
Museum fuer Naturkunde
Institut fuer Systematische Zoologie
Invalidenstr. 43
D-10099 Berlin, Germany

Phone: +49-30-2093-8507
Fax: +49-30-2093-8528
e-mail: michael.ohl at rz.hu-berlin.de