[Taxacom] Linz Zoocode Committee

[Alain Dubois]

*The Linz Zoocode Committee*



The Linz *Zoocode* Committee (LZC) was established in July 2014 in Linz
(Austria), as a result of the international meeting ‘Burning questions and
problems of zoological nomenclature’, which acknowledged the presence in
the current *International* *Code of Zoological Nomenclature* of several
serious problems. The LZC was assigned the task of writing the Linz
*Zoocode*, a set of new proposals regarding the terminology, the Principles
and Rules of zoological nomenclature. The first report of the activities of
this Committee, covering the period 2014‒2019, was published in *Bionomina*
on 17 December 2019. It is on Open Access through the link <
https://www.biotaxa.org/Bionomina/article/view/bionomina.17.1.1>. This text
is submitted to the consideration of the international community of
zootaxonomists and of the International Commission on Zoological
Nomenclature in the perspective of the incorporation of its proposals into
the next version of the *Code*.

This document contains the presentation of the LZC work, and the first
documents adopted by the Committee: the Preamble and Principles of the
*Zoocode*, the description of its structure and a first instalment of the
*Zoocode* Glossary. Its purpose is to regulate the status of zoological
nomina and nomenclatural acts. It provides an explicit detailed, objective
and binding nomenclatural system for the unambiguous and universal naming
of all zoological taxa recognised by taxonomists, so that, in the frame of
a given classification, the nomen of each taxon is unique and distinct. It
relies on a Nomenclatural Process consisting in four main stages
(availability, allocation, validity and registration). Whereas the *Code*
currently in force is based on six stated Principles (and a few unstated
ones), the *Zoocode *recognises 17 distinct ones.

The LZC is not a closed group. It is open to all zootaxonomists who share
its concerns and aims. All colleagues who agree with a few basic consensual
statements on which the LZC was founded are welcome to apply for co-option
by the Committee as additional members (either as active members or as
observers) by contacting us through the following e-mail address: <
sapo421 at gmail.com>.



Alain Dubois, Aaron M. Bauer, Luis M P. Ceríaco, François Dusoulier,
Thierry Frétey, Ivan Löbl, Olivier Lorvelec, Annemarie Ohler, Renata
Stopiglia & Erna Aescht


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Professeur Émérite Alain Dubois
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Institut Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB) - UMR 7205
Reptiles & Amphibiens
CP 30
25 rue Cuvier
75005 Paris
France

Adresses e-mail: <sapo421 at gmail.com>, <adbionomina at gmail.com>, <
adpeerj at gmail.com>, <adubois at mnhn.fr>

Blogs personnels:
Sur Overblog: <lherbu.com>
Sur Mediapart: <https://blogs.mediapart.fr/alaindubois-0/blog>

President, Linz Zoocode Committee
<zoologos22 at gmail.com>

Chief Editor, Bionomina
<http://www.mapress.com/bionomina>

Nomenclature Editor, Zootaxa
<http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/>

Academic Editor, PeerJ
<https://peerj.com>

Website of the journal Alytes
<https://www.alytes-journal.org>

Website of the journal Dumerilia
<http://dumerilia.wifeo.com>
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“La culture ce n’est pas avoir le cerveau farci de dates, de noms ou de
chiffres, c’est la qualité du jugement, l’exigence logique, l’appétit de la
preuve, la notion de la complexité des choses et de l’arduité des
problèmes. C’est l’habitude du doute, le discernement dans la méfiance, la
modestie d’opinion, la patience d’ignorer, la certitude qu’on n’a jamais
tout le vrai en partage; c’est avoir l’esprit ferme sans l’avoir rigide,
c’est être armé contre le flou et aussi contre la fausse précision, c’est
refuser tous les fanatismes et jusqu’à ceux qui s’autorisent de la raison;
c’est suspecter les dogmatismes officiels mais sans profit pour les
charlatans, c’est révérer le génie mais sans en faire une idole, c’est
toujours préférer ce qui est à ce qu’on préférerait qui fût.”
(Jean Rostand, Le droit d’être naturaliste, 1963).
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