[Taxacom] Scientific name vs Scientific name string

[Francisco Welter-Schultes]

Pete,
it depends with whom you like to communicate. If you talk to a 
politician you will call these names just scientific names because 
you don't need to be accurate, and a politician will neither know 
what an author not what a current allocation is. If you have a 
database that will be used by highly skilled users and you need to 
determine exactly what is in there, it might be more convenient to 
use an exact expression, which does not provoke misunderstandings, 
and your term will then be longer.

> Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)
Current combination of a name of a species with author and year

> Felis concolor Linnaeus, 1771
Original combination of a name of a species with author and year

> Puma concolor
Current combination of a name of a species without author and year

> Felis concolor
Original combination of a name of a species without author and year

You can also insert "zoological" species, if your database includes 
mixed groups of organisms. 

Francisco

University of Goettingen, Germany
www.animalbase.org