>By the way, I do not think pecten is a common name anywhere but among
>shellers.  Has anyone heard of a "pecten dump?"  I thought not.
 
Actually, "pecten" was used as a common name before it was used as a
scientific name, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition:
 
4. A genus of bivalve molluscs, having a rounded shell with radiating ribs
suggesting the teeth of a comb; an animal of this genus, a scallop.
 
1682 Sir T. Browne Let. 15 Mar., Wks. 1836 I. 336 The pectines or skollops.
1778 King in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 40 Pectens, cockles, limpets.
1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. viii. 264 Those elegant shells the Pectens
or Comb Shells.
 
By the way, in reference to an earlier message on this subject, Nautilus is
not an example of an organism that has the English common name identical
with the scientific name.  The genus Allonautilus for Nautilus scrobiculatus
was recently recognized as distinct from Nautilus. Also, the fossil genus
Aturia and other extinct nautiloids are sometimes referred to as nautilus.
 
Gary
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Rosenberg, Ph.D.                     [log in to unmask]
Malacology & Invertebrate Paleontology    gopher://erato.acnatsci.org
Academy of Natural Sciences               http://www.acnatsci.org
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway            Phone 215-299-1033
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1195 USA           Fax   215-299-1170