[Zoobank-list] Fwd: NYT: In the Classification Kingdom, Only the Fittest Survive

[Barry Roth]

How could the skull of Cope be a lectotype when it was not part of the original type-series?  A neotype, maybe?

Barry Roth

Doug Yanega <dyanega at UCR.EDU> wrote:
As a lighter aside, I noticed the following in the NY Times article
Neal EVenhuis forwarded a while back:

>>Not only did Linnaeus shape the naming of life for more than two
>>centuries, but he also enjoyed perks including crowning himself
>>"prince of botanists" and reviewing his own work as "a masterpiece
>>that no one can read too often or admire too much."
>>
>>His glories even include being designated as the so-called
>>"lectotype," a kind of official scientific specimen to represent,
>>for science and for all of time, the species Homo sapiens. Not bad
>>for an old-time flower collector.

This is not true. Bakker in 1993 designated the skull of E.D. Cope as
the lectotype specimen for Homo sapiens. The NYT reporter fell prey
to an urban legend.

Did the NYT ever publish a correction, I wonder? Maybe more
taxonomists need to know about Bakker's lectotypification, so the
Linnaeus legend can be put to rest...
--

Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82



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