[Taxacom] unflagged classification change question

[Francisco Welter-Schultes]

Option C is also an option. Your reaction should depend on the 
particular significance and impact of Smith's publication.
I find myself in agreement with Mike and Stephen.

Being classified as a junior synonym of another name is not an official 
status that a name has. Every classification is always a subjective 
judgement. Terms like "new synonym" or "new combination" may erroneously 
suggest that we are dealing with an official act. To avoid such 
misunderstandings I usually do not recommend employing such terms at 
all. They are not necessary and have the effect of blurring the 
difference between nomenclature and taxonomy.
If I place Canis lupus in the genus Homo this will produce a name Homo 
lupus. I do not know if somebody did that before, published, unpublished 
in a museum catalog, or in the internet. Taxonomic treatments do not 
need to be published. So actually I would not be able to say for sure 
that my idea was new.

Francisco


-----
Francisco Welter-Schultes

Am 11.06.2018 um 23:06 schrieb Stephen Thorpe:
> Hi Derek,
> I'm deliberately answering your question before reading the replies by others, so as to give you an independent response.
> The obvious answer to your question is simply to explain the situation in the publication as you explained it in the Taxacom post and just say that you consider the synonymy to be correct, so, in the absence of any explanation by Smith for treating it again as a valid species, you are continuing to treat it as a synonym. Note that synonymy isn't a formal nomenclatural act in zoology, so there is no sense in which Smith "has made it a valid species again". It is simply a valid species in his opinion, and although everyone is entitled to their opinion, nobody is obliged to follow.
> I hope this helps (and I apologise in advance for any repetition of what others may have replied),
> Cheers,
> Stephen
> 
> --------------------------------------------
> On Tue, 12/6/18, Derek Sikes <dssikes at alaska.edu> wrote:
> 
>   Subject: [Taxacom] unflagged classification change question
>   To: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>   Received: Tuesday, 12 June, 2018, 6:52 AM
>   
>   All,
>   
>   For those of you who keep track of one
>   or more taxonomic classifications on
>   which you are an authority...
>   
>   I'd like to know how you'd react to the
>   following (all too-realistic)
>   hypothetical scenario:
>   
>   *You find a publication by Smith in
>   which a species name that you feel had
>   been justifiably made a junior synonym
>   some years earlier, was treated as a
>   valid species with no explanation for
>   the change. *
>   
>   In the next publication you produce on
>   the group do you:
>   
>   A) list it as a valid species citing
>   Smith's publication
>   
>   B) re-synonymize it, cite Smith, and
>   explain that there was no evidence
>   offered by Smith for the change
>   
>   C) ignore (don't cite) Smith and list
>   it as a junior synonym
>   
>   D) something else? (& for this
>   hypothetical, imagine Smith recently died)
>   
>   Thanks,
>   Derek
>   
>   --
>   
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