Taxacom: species name vs specific epithet

[Stephen Thorpe]

 In the alternative reality where taxonomists (and people in general) have a modicum of commonsense, binomials can still be used for species names in a rankless taxonomy, just interpreted differently. A binomial, like Homo sapiens, for example, when then be interpreted as simply a two word identifier for the species. There would be no "changing the genus", except to eliminate homonymy. Closely related species could have different generic epithets and unrelated species could have the same. It would probably drive most taxonomists nuts, but, objectively, there is nothing wrong with it!
Stephen
    On Sunday, 1 January 2023 at 04:27:04 am NZDT, David Campbell via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:  
 
 On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 9:21 AM Daniel Gustafsson via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> ...This is by no means the only example I can think of from papers where
> numerous parasites from the same host are described in the same paper,
> using the exact same spelling of a derivation of the host name as the
> species epithet. How would you solve this in a way that is more practical
> than just using the genus name?
>

Similar phenomena are common in other situations, such as a monograph on
the taxa from a particular locality that has multiple species receiving the
same locality- or stratigraphy-based epithet.? MacNeil & Dockery (1984)
used the specific epithet menthafontinalis for multiple species from the
Mint Springs Formation.? Common Latin adjectives are used as specific
epithets multiple times in many early publications (vulgaris Linnaeus 1758
is not very helpful, for example.)

An even more unhelpful proposal? to promote flexibility in taxonomic rank
usage was to give names as
Whateverhighertaxonomiccategoryisinviewatthemoment specificepithet.? E.g.,
Homo sapiens, Hominidae sapiens, Primates sapiens, Mammalia sapiens...? The
number of homonyms that would create is appalling.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Associate Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
110 S Main St, #7270
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017
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