Talk:Ischyrosaurus

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[edit] Ischyrosaurus Cope, 1876

The correct date of the publication of Ischyrosaurus Cope is 1876, not 1869 [1], making Ischyrosaurus Hulke, 1874 in Lydekker, 1888 unpre-occupied. Cope [2] tried to create Ischyrosaurus for Ischyrotherium on the grounds that Ischyrotherium was a reptile and not a mammal as originally classified by Leidy [3]. However, the name Ischyrosaurus Cope, 1876 is a nomen nudum, on the condition of Cope's attempt, and a junior synonym of Ischyrotherium Leidy, 1856.

[1] http://www.paleofile.com/Demo/Mainpage/Taxalist/Archosauromorphs.htm

[2] Cope, E. D., 1876, On some extinct reptiles and Batrachia from the Judith River and Fox Hills beds of Montana: Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 340-359.

[3] Leidy, J., 1856, Notices of remains of extinct vertebrated animals of New Jersey, collected by Prof. Cook, of the State Geological Survey, under the Direction of Dr. W. Kitchell: Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, v. 8, p. 220-221. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.194.116.63 (talk) 17:13, 31 December 2006 (UTC).

The link (once I found it; for some reason, I had to go through Google to get to it) claims it was Cope 1870 (which would be "Synopsis of the extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and Aves of North America". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 14:1-252.), which is not 1869, but still predates it. A JSTOR link I found on Google to an 1871 Cope paper implied he'd coined it before 1871:

JSTOR: On the Families of Fishes of the Cretaceous Formation of Kansas

The case appears to me to be different with the name Ischyrosaurus, which I proposed to replace with Ischyrotherium (Leidy). The latter was given to a genus ...

So, it was in use before 1871. That it was a nomen nudum, or a superfluous name, does not matter. However, since it may have been abandoned by 1871 (if I'm reading that sentence fragment correctly), Cope's version could be declared a nomen oblitum if for some reason Ischyrosaurus Hulke became important to paleontology.

Why some have it as Cope (1869) and some have it as Cope (1870) (it looks like it was a typo in this message to the DML, which looks like it was referring to the 1870 work) I don't know, but it was definitely coined before 1871. J. Spencer 20:30, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Correction: Cope had several 1869 or 1870 works dealing with Batrachia (see for example the ref list here for a few, one of which is repeated in 1870 because of the famous Elasmosaurus-head-on-tail thing), so I can't firmly say which one without having read them. The important thing is still the pre-1874 date. J. Spencer 20:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC)