[B-PT25_2PM1] Biotic history and its relation to the Earth history

[BPT25-P01_PG] Available or unavailable? : nomenclatural examination of the Cretaceous ammonite genus Polyptychoceras

3-min talk in an oral session

*Kenji IKUNO¹, Hiromichi HIRANO¹ (1.Waseda University)

Keywords:Polyptychoceras, heteromorph ammonite, scientific names, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Cretaceous

It goes without saying that scientific names are useful for representing kinds of organisms. However, using names properly in accordance with the rules of nomenclature is not necessarily easy and a confusion of names could damage the objectivity of researches.Polyptychoceras Yabe, 1927 from the Upper Cretaceous is a genus of heteromorph ammonites, which is characterized by paper clip-like shell morphology. It has been pointed out that this genus needs re-examination of species-level classification whereas occurrences of 12 species have been reported from Japan since P. pseudogaultinum (Yokoyama, 1890) was described. However, there are still many unclear points in the species names of this genus proposed until today. For example, P. yubarense has been attributed to Yabe, 1927 in many literatures probably because Yabe (1927) first proposed this name. In fact, Yabe (1927) is not the original description of this species by reason that the literature only listed the name of this species and gave no biological description (the Code's Article 12.1).In the present study, we examined the nomenclature of these 12 species on the basis of the currently used International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Fourth Edition (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). As a result, nomenclatural availability, authors, dates of publication, and original descriptions were revealed. These results will ensure the objectivity of relevant studies and will contribute to future taxonomic works.For your information, this abstract is not issued for the purposes of zoological nomenclature (Disclaimer based on Art. 8.2).ReferencesInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Fourth Edition, International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, xxix + 306 p.Yabe, H., 1927, The science reports of the Tôhoku Imperial University, 2nd series (geology), 11, 27-100.