[Taxacom] most common species names

Thu Jan 19 17:23:14 CST 2012

Dear Michael, plus others interested,

Here are the most common epithets for valid/accepted species in my IRMNG database at this time (species mainly from Cat. of Life 2006 version, supplemented with some other datasets - including Australian and New Zealand animal data in particular):

ICZN USAGES (n = 843,023)

1  (1550)   australius/australis/australia/australes
2  (1383)   pallidus/pallida/pallidum
3  (1369)   gracilis/gracila/gracilum/gracilus
4  (1332)   obscurius/obscurus/obscurum/obscuris/obscura
5  (1271)   intermedis/intermedia/intermedius/intermidius/intermedium
6  (1260)   minutus/minuta/minutum
7  (1162)   elongatum/elongata/elongatus
8  (1133)   elegans/eligans
9  (1047)   minor
10 (1020)   similis/simila/similum

ICBN USAGES (n = 167,691)

1  (285)   elegans/eligans
2  (270)   indicius/indicum/indicus/indica/indicis
3  (265)   intermedis/intermedia/intermedius/intermidius/intermedium
4  (255)   gracilis/gracila/gracilum/gracilus
5  (249)   californica/californicus/californicum
6  (243)   japonicus/japonica/japonicum/japonicas/japonnica/japanicum/japponicus/japanicus/japanica
7  (227)   robustum/robustus/robusta/robustius
8  (221)   elongatum/elongata/elongatus
9  (215)   minutus/minuta/minutum
10 (205)   angustifolius/angustifolia/angustifolium

TOTAL USAGES (n = 1,017,218 - also includes c. 6,500 bacterial names)

1  (1749)   australius/australis/australia/australes
2  (1628)   gracilis/gracila/gracilum/gracilus
3  (1555)   intermedis/intermedia/intermedius/intermidius/intermedium
4  (1552)   pallidus/pallida/pallidum
5  (1481)   minutus/minuta/minutum
6  (1433)   obscurius/obscurus/obscurum/obscuris/obscura
7  (1425)   elegans/eligans
8  (1389)   elongatum/elongata/elongatus
9  (1237)   minor
10 (1188)   robustum/robustus/robusta/robustius

The "australis" hits are probably an artifact of the nature of my particular holdings, but the remainder should be generally indicative I would think. These totals exclude species level synonyms and infraspecific names, some of which will be contributing to the values you have found below from EOL, plus my 'valid' species holdings will also be a bit less extensive than theirs.

You could of course look in e.g. the Global Names Index, http://gni.globalnames.org/, but this does not discriminate between valid and non-valid names, or by nomenclatural Code...

Hope the above may be of some interest,

Regards - Tony

Tony Rees
Manager, Divisional Data Centre,
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research,
GPO Box 1538,
Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
Ph: 0362 325318 (Int: +61 362 325318)
Fax: 0362 325000 (Int: +61 362 325000)
e-mail: Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Manager, OBIS Australia regional node, http://www.obis.org.au/
Biodiversity informatics research activities: http://www.cmar.csiro.au/datacentre/biodiversity.htm
Personal info: http://www.fishbase.org/collaborators/collaboratorsummary.cfm?id=1566
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tony-rees/18/770/36

> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-
> bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Ohl, Michael
> Sent: Friday, 20 January 2012 1:24 AM
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: [Taxacom] most common species names
> 
> Hi,
> 
> while compiling some statistics on animal names, I tried to find the
> top names, which are most common in zoology.
> 
> A quick taxon search in EOL revealed these numbers for names, which
> immediately came to my mind and which might serve as estimates for the
> true occurence:
> 
> minor: 5540 hits
> major: 3384 hits
> niger: 1341 hits
> 
> I am sure that there are other very common names. Any suggestions?
> 
> Cheers, Michael Ohl
> 
> Museumfuer Naturkunde, Berlin
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