>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.

Excellent! Thanks for this, guys!
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not those of Otago University
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean"  - Talking Heads

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