> The determination as to whether there was an
> invalid emendation in this chresonymy hinges on
> the Cossmann (1909: vol. 8), in which one would
> expect to find the rationale for his nomen novum,
> Pleuroceras, which is a junior homonym regardless of his intent.
>
> Harry
>
> Cossmann, 1895-1925. Essais de Paléontologie
> comparée. Paris. 13 volumes Paris. [not seen; taken from Wenz, loc. cit.]
>
With Harry's citation, I have looked up a couple more references.
Unfortunately, I don't remember for certain where I saw the discussion
that refutes the use of Pleuroceratidae for the snails.
Cossmann explicitly is "correcting" Rafinesque's spelling of
Pleurocera to Pleuroceras. However, he invokes Dall (Wagner Free
Institute) as the source for the family spelling Pleuroceratidae.
Dall just uses it without explanation. Cossmann's "corrected"
spelling, invalid under modern rules, assumed that Rafinesque was
thinking of -ceras (horn). I believe this would entail Pleurocerat-
as the stem, even with Rafinesque's spelling. However, Rafinesque did
not give explicit etymologies, and other stems such as -ceres (wax)
are conceivable, not to mention the possibility that Rafinesque just
thought it was a good name, not strictly Latinized. Because
Pleurocera cannot confidently be identified as being based on -ceras,
it is appropriate to take the stem as Pleurocer-, hence Pleuroceridae
is the proper family for eastern North American freshwater
cerithioideans and possibly also for northwestern North American taxa,
some northeast Asian taxa, etc. Pleuroceratidae can be used for the
cephalopod, though I don't know anything about possible synonyms, etc.
I'm confident that I have seen this in print but can't place it
precisely. The ICZN establishment of the type for Pleurocera would be
worth checking, as would Burch's publications on the freshwater fauna
of North America and Morrison's Proc. USNM paper on freshwater
cerithioideans.
--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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