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

Fri May 3 14:06:46 CDT 2024

Dear Paolo, thanks for the suggestion, but I am fairly certain that
Eschmeyer's Catalog covers only Recent, not fossi, fish names at this time.
I did just check, and neither Astrolepis or Asterolepis produced any hits
in the online version, which tends to confirm my belief.

OK, thanks to Elie's not above, I / we can see the full text of the 2019
paper by Downs et al., in which the relevant portion reads:
---------------------
"Eichwald first proposed the name Asterolepis ornata in a November, 1839,
letter to H. G. Bronn of Stuttgart. The letter was published sometime after
April of the following year (Eichwald 1840b) in the annual journal at which
Bronn served as co-editor, Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie,
Geologie und Petrekaften-Kunde. This reference has been mis-cited (e.g.,
Lyarskaja 1981; Upeniece 2011) as a publication of Neues Jahrbuch für
Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Paläontologie, a title change for the
journal that only occurred after Bronn’s death in 1862 and then continued
through to 1942. In an earlier 1840 publication (published in April),
Eichwald (1840a: 79) mentions, though misspells, “Astrolepis” but makes no
formal proposal of the name and does not use the name of the type species,
A. ornata. His casual use of the name “Astrolepis” here is likely due to
his previously written, though not yet published, proposal of A. ornata in
his letter to Bronn. The quirk of publication schedules means that the
earlier Eichwald (1840a) publication, in Bulletin scientifique de
l’Académie impériale des Sciences de Saint Petersbourg, is the first
published occurrence of “Astrolepis,” though not of the type species name.
This understanding reveals that the original spelling of Asterolepis is
actually “Astrolepis.” However, considering the subsequent spelling’s
prevailing (though not exclusive; see Murphy et al. 1976) usage and its
common attribution to the publication containing the original spelling
(e.g., Traquair 1888; Woodward 1891; Rohon 1899; Gross 1931, 1933;
Karatajūte-Talimaa 1963; Lyarskaja 1981; Janvier & Villarroel 2000;
Moloshnikov 2008; Newman & Den Blaauwen 2018), the International Code of
Zoological Nomenclature (Article 33.3.1) supports Asterolepis as a correct
spelling."
----------------

In accordance with this analysis, and also the previous cited work by van
der Laan in which he treats the Astero- variants as "name and spelling in
prevailing recent practice", plus with Francisco's conclusion that the name
is indeed available from the  Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb. paper, I have
decided to most likely proceed as follows in the IRMNG database at this
time:

(1) Treat the Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb. paper (reference per Neave, work
accessible via BHL) as the original publication for this taxon name, but as
an original incorrect spelling (by prevailing usage), pointing to the next
item as its accepted name
(2) Construct a new record (not based on Neave) for the "prevailing usage"
spelling as a corrected original spelling, referencing the Bull. Acad. St.
Pétersb. paper as its original publication ("as Astrolepis")
(3) Treat Neave's second reference, i.e. to the Asterolepis variant as
published in Neues Jahrbuch, which he characterises as an error, as a later
usage cf. the corrected Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb. name
(4) Reassign species of the genus presently spelled "Asterolepis" to the
record above identified as item "2" as their parent (currently they are
allocated to the record "3").

If anyone disagrees with this approach, or can suggest a better one, please
speak! This does seem to be a fairly "curly" case but clearly one that
deserves sorting out, one way or the other, in my case aiming for
consistency with current practices (by fish taxonomists). The question of
homonymy with the Lepidopteran genus Asterolepis Razowski, 1964 in
Tortricidae would then evidently need to be addressed separately.

Thanks - Tony
Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.me%2FTonyRees&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C52bd7c625cf7444f04d108dc6ba4359c%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638503600226616807%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aukImLgJlud1ZrL42127DZh0FHUPzpM2ZJI19Hnhz98%3D&reserved=0
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irmng.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C52bd7c625cf7444f04d108dc6ba4359c%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638503600226616807%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5NydSufx9E9bPtoJNm12xMNqqfejpVpOptfmz3ub74w%3D&reserved=0

On Sat, 4 May 2024 at 02:58, Paulo Buckup <buckup at acd.ufrj.br> wrote:

> Hi Tony,
>     Have you checked the Catalog of Fishes?:
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fresearcharchive.calacademy.org%2Fresearch%2Fichthyology%2Fcatalog%2Ffishcatmain.asp&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C52bd7c625cf7444f04d108dc6ba4359c%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638503600226616807%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=YdPR7cmezjv4cMY%2FNM3Sv0h74%2FP%2BQu8zAThK9bKiLpo%3D&reserved=0
>     This is the best source of taxonomic data for all fish species.
> Cheers,
> Paulo Buckup
> ---
> Paulo A. Buckup, Ph.D.         https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flattes.cnpq.br%2F7200068520418368&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C52bd7c625cf7444f04d108dc6ba4359c%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638503600226616807%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cGzSiGRs0Eg2C196EAJNF%2FEBEYLSzy85FpZmso88bmk%3D&reserved=0
> Dept. de Vertebrados
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fcitations%3Fuser%3Dybi4V0kAAAAJ&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C52bd7c625cf7444f04d108dc6ba4359c%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638503600226616807%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7US96Mn5yB%2Fmq0q4YuIOEXHUJIJ2ABvxiof%2Bd9W2lKQ%3D&reserved=0
> Museu Nacional                 e-mail: buckup at acd.ufrj.br
> Quinta da Boa Vista            tel.:+55(21)99994-0223
> 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ   Brasil
>
>