Talk:List of mammals in Tanzania
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[edit] discovery of Rhynochocyon udzungwensis
it is mentioned the creature was discovered in 2008, and indeed today (1 Feb) it's in the news (e.g. here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7213571.stm). However, the actual discovery of the creature was as early as 2005 ("The new species was first caught on film in 2005 in Ndundulu Forest in Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains by a camera trap"), shouldn't it list 2005 for the discovery? Or is the date of official publication usually used for the 'discovery date'? Jalwikip (talk) 09:06, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
- The publication date is the date it was formally "described". Trying to put a date on the "discovery" is a bit awkward since there's a collection date, but who knows if the collector recognized that it was a new species at that point. There are lots of scenarios where an animal is in a museum for a century after being collected before someone analyzes it and determines it is something new. So does that make the date 1908, 2008,the date the researcher first suspected it was something new, the date the researcher was confident it was new, or the date the researcher convinced the reviewers it was something new? There is no formal definition of a "discovery" date. In formal usage, the impoartant date is the "description" date. --Aranae (talk) 15:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
