Brontosaurus

[Chris J. Durden]

There are a number of insects, particularly beetles, that were named
*pensylvanicus* originally, and with this name in current usage.
  There have been few instances of typo's, later corrected by the original
author.
  There have also been differences in opinion over orthography, the
transcription of Greek root words to Latin. These are genuine scholarly
differences of opinion and the author's usage should prevail. An example is
the Permian dragonfly *Tupus* later incorrectly "corrected" to *Typus*.
  Seems the author has the priviledge of correcting an unintended typo, but
niether the author or some subsequent pedant may change an intended
original spelling.
........Chris Durden


At 07:07  5/11/00 -0500, you wrote:
>As a non-codologist, I'll pose another question.  The late Gene
>Eisenmann (AMNH Neotropicologist) once pointed out that Audubon (if
>memory serves me) had spelled the name of a something pensylvanicus,
>with one 'n' in the first mention, but with two 'n's (pennsylvanicus) in
>all subsequent writings.  He told me (this would have been 30 years
>ago), that when it was apparent that the original describer had made a
>typo (as reflected in his [presumably female scientists had better
>things to do than worry about such things] own subsequent writings, then
>the "corrected" spelling prevailed (even, I think if the original author
>did not issue a formal mea culpa and correct the spelling).  Is that or
>was that true
>
>
>MIKE GOCHFELD
>
> 


 
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