Taxacom: Correct spelling / history of a fossil fish name: Astrolepis/Asterolepis Eichwald, 1840

[Tony Rees]

Hi Taxacomers,

I am trying to determine the history, and correct spelling, of the genus
name Astrolepis/Asterolepis Eichwald, 1840, for which Neave has the
following 2 records:

Astrolepis Eichwald 1840 Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb., 7, 79. Pisces (See
Chelonichthys Agassiz 1844.)

Asterolepis Eichwald 1840 N. Jahrb. f. Min., 1840, 425. Pisces (err. pro
Astrolepis Eichwald 1840) (nec Astrolepas Gray 1825 see Chelonichthys
Agassiz 1840)

My first question is., are these the same taxon? in which case the "see
Chelonichthys Agassiz 1840" is a little confusing.

My second is, which name is correct (aka in current use): for example Murphy
et al., 1976, "Astrolepis sp. from the Upper Devonian of central Nevada"
use Astrolepis without further comment; Downs et al., 2019 "Asterolepis
alticristata n. sp.(Antiarchi) from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) of
Nunavut, Canada, and a report on the antiarch diversity of the Fram
Formation" and most recent authors use Asterolepis (this paper has some
discussion regarding the history of the name, however unfortunately I
cannot access a full copy of the text).

Third under a few scenarios - if  Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb., 7, 1840
appeared earlier than N. Jahrb. f. Min., 1840, then either (a) Astrolepis
could be an original incorrect spelling, Asterolepis a corrected original
one, with the original publication information maintained, (b) Astrolepis
could be unavailable for some reason, making Asterolepis the correct
spelling with the publication details N. Jahrb. f. Min., 1840; or (c)
something else I have not thought of...

Comments, further advice most welcome!

For the record, the genus in its most frequently encountered current
spelling "Asterolepis" is the type of the family Asterolepididae which
appears to be attributable to Traquair, 1888.

Thanks in advance - Tony



Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
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