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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: YAK-ZYM |
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ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE , the system by which it is attempted to designate, exactly and conveniently, the animals which exist now or are known to have existed. It is, in fact, the grammar of classification, and has the advantage that it is international. The popular names of animals differ from country to country, but even amongst civilized peoples, and still more amongst uneducated persons and the lower races, the animals denoted by popular names are a very small part of existing forms, whilst the connotation
ZOOLOGY .Linnaeus named very many species and genera, but the number known continues to increase at a prodigious rate, while precision of description has far surpassed his conceptions, with the result that his rules have long ceased to meet the needs of modern science. In 1842 the English ornithologist, H. E. Strickland, assisted by a committee of which Charles Darwin was a member, elaborated rules which became known as the Stnckland Code, and were adopted in 1845 by the American Society of Geologists and Naturalists, and in 1846 by the 3ritish Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1881.the International Congress of Geology, meeting at Bologna, constructed a code differing in many respects from that of Strickland and specially applicable to fossil forms. In 1881 the Zoological Society of France agreed on new rules, based on those of Strickland, but formulated by a committee of which Maurice Chaper and R. Blanchard were leading members. In 1885 the American Ornithologists' Union, urged by the needs of the great advance in ornithology in America, adopted rules which were still further modified from the Strickland Code. In 1894 the Zoological Society of Germany framed another set of rules drawn
Doderlein and K. Mobius. In 1896 the English entomologist Lord Walsingham devised another modification of the Strickland Code, which became known as the Merton Rules, followed by many entomologists. The existence of so many conflicting authorities caused much confusion and an impractical condition of anarchy in which many distinguished and active systematists elaborated practices individual to themselves. When the International Congress of Zoology held its first meeting in Paris in 1889, one of the chief
The goal to be reached is that the connotation
capital initial letter, and treated as a substantive in the nominative singular. When a genus is divided into sub-genera the name of the typical sub-genus must be the same as the name of the genus, and when it is desired to cite the name of a sub-genus this name must be placed in parentheses between the generic and the specific names, as, for instance, Vanessa (Vanessa) cardui and Vanessa (myrameis) cardui respectively, for the typical sub-genus and another sub-genus of the genus Vanessa.Specific names are adjectives, substantives in apposition with the generic name or substantives in the genitive; they are written with a small initial letter except when they are substantives derived from the name of a person, but even in the latter case it is permitted and is becoming usual to employ the small initial letter, as Gazella cuvieri. If it be desired to cite the sub-specific name, such name is written immediately following the specific name without the interposition of any mark of punctuation, as Rana esculenta marmorala. The author of a scientific narne is that person who first publishes the name in association with a clear indication of what the name denotes, and if it be desired to cite the author's name, it should follow the specific name in a different type but without the interposition of any mark of punctuation, e.g. Felis catus Linnaeus. Names are merely designations, or recognition marks, and not descriptions, and hence a name is not to be rejected or changed if it is otherwise valid, because it gives a wrong description; there is no more reason why Felis rufus should be a ruddy cat than John Black a person of swarthy complexion: nor is a name to be rejected because of tautonomy, and thus Apus apus apus may be a valid designation of a sub-species if the names are otherwise valid. It has happened frequently and continues to happen that a creature is discovered to have been given more than one name. Which of these is valid ? The decision of this is one of the most difficult and controverted problems in nomenclature. In the hope of settling it by some system which should be as nearly as possible automatic and should leave the least possible to the inclination or choice of the individual worker, there was formulated what is called the rule of priority. The valid name of a genus or species is that name under which it was first designated, but with the conditions first that the name was published and accompanied by an indication, definition or description, and second that the author applied the principles of binary nomenclature. The tenth edition of Linnaeus' Systema naturae (1758) is the work that first consistently applied the binary system to zoology generally and is accepted as the starting-point of zoological nomenclature. Beginning from this the oldest avail-able name is therefore to be retained. The application of the rule of priority is in many cases very difficult, but the labours of zoologists in many groups are rapidly succeeding in making the necessary direct and incidental changes in nomenclature, whilst, with regard to recent
special
series of species in a museum or collection, one species is as important as another, and changes of names even of familiar animals are matters of little moment. But a comparatively small number of animals hold a prominent place in the attention of zoologists who are not specially systematists and of the public interested in natural history. It is complained that application of the rules of priority is changing the names of many familiar animals, designations that are sanctioned by long usage in museums and laboratories, in the famous treatises of comparative anatomy, of general biology, of travel, medicine, and the sciences and subjects closely related to zoology. There is being claimed, in fact, protection against the law of priority for a certain number of such familiar and customary appellations. The machinery for drafting such a list
To make the denotation of zoological names precise, exact workers are endeavouring to associate the conception of types with names, a process which can be made simple and definite with new work, but which presents great difficulties in the attempt to apply it to existing terms. Every family should have designated one of its genera as the type genus, every genus a type species and so forth. In the case of species or sub-species the type is a single specimen, either the only one before the author. when writing his description, or one definitely selected by him, the others being paratypes. Such type specimens are the keynote of modern expert systematic work and their careful preservation and registration is of fundamental importance. A co-type is one of several specimens which have together formed the basis of a species, no one of them having been selected by the author as a type. A topotype is a specimen killed at the typical locality. (P. C. M.) End of Article: ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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