[Taxacom] Type of Vetularctos inopinatus (and increasing hybridization??)

[Frederick W Schueler]

Steve Manning wrote:
> At 11:43 PM 1/18/2009, Kenneth Kinman wrote:
>> Christopher Taylor wrote:
>> As for how to list such a name in synonymies, I wouldn't think it
>> could be made a synonym of either parent exclusively. I suppose it would
>> be a little like an agreed _nomen dubium_ - unable to be used, but
>> unable to be formally synonymised with anything else.

* but what happens to the name, based on what is regarded at one time as 
a hybrid between species or subspecies, if this turns out subsequently 
to be the oldest name for a species that includes both hybridizing 
subspecific entities? It's not a hybrid between species, so it should be 
available for naming a species, but as a hybrid between subspecies it's 
not available as a name of either of the hybridizing subspecies. And 
what happens when reproductive isolation breaks down, and the two 
previously isolated entities become a single hybrid swarm, if the 
hybrid-based name is the oldest available?

just asking,

fred.
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>> -------------------------------------------------------
>> Christopher,
>>        I agree that it is unavailable to be used, but perhaps it is best
>> to formally (or at the very least informally) synonymise it with BOTH
>> parental species, perhaps as something like:  "Vetularctos inopinatus
>> (partim, one parent of a hybrid)."  It's not really a "dubious name" if
>> we know what the parental species were, so it seems preferable to list
>> it as a partial synonym of both species.
>>               ------Ken
>> P.S.   If the genetic separation (speciation) of polar bears and
>> grizzlies was largely due to polar bears mating out on the ice (while
>> grizzlies mate on land), isn't it likely that global warming (and thus
>> reduction of ice upon which to mate) will lead to increased
>> hybridization of polar bears with grizzlies?  And as polar bear
>> populations decease (and grizzly ranges presumably expand northward), it
>> seems almost inevitable that more hybridization would result (and that
>> pure-bred polar bears would become less and less common over time).
> 
> Which, when and if it happens, would emphatically justify combining 
> grizzlies and polar bears into one species!  (Sorry, polar bears, you 
> might have to get with the program!  But maybe a better ending than 
> true extinction.) --  Steve
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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