Misnomers

[Paul Selden]

Sean, and all.

There are lots of examples in palaeontology, some fossil arthropods:

The eurypterid _Baltoeurypterus tetragonophthalmus_ had its (reniform) eyes
crushed so that they looked square when described by Eichwald (1839).
Similarly, the eyes of the trilobite _Chasmops_ were missing.

Another, huge, eurypterid was first described as a giant graptolite (a
colonial planktonic organism), as _Megalograptus_!

As you might expect, there are loads of fossils first described as
something else, plants as animals, etc,. amongst fossils.

Paul


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Dr Paul A. Selden
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Phone: ## (44) 161 275 3296 / ## (44) 1625 582758
Fax: ## (44) 161 275 3947 / ## (44) 1625 582758
Website:  http://quercus.ge.man.ac.uk

           *Naturefile*

Macintosh software for wildlife recording
and collection management:

http://quercus.ge.man.ac.uk/Naturefile/Information.html