What is and isn't a paratype depends whether the type series was closed or not. If the words 'holotype' and 'paratype' were used in the original description to indicate certain shells, then the type series is closed and any specimen other than those, even if it is figured and/or measured in the description, is not a '-type' of any kind. If the word 'holotype' was used, but not 'paratype', however, then anything mentioned, figured or measured in the original description can be considered a paratype, along with any shell that can be proved to have been known to the author and considered by him/her to belong to that species at the time of the description (such as specimens in museum collections for which he/she wrote a label using that name before then publishing the description). In practice, these cases are quite common.
I would always encourage authors to close their type series, to avoid ambiguity in centuries to come. You can still select as many paratypes as you like, and distribute them to museums and collections to make sure that the species is well understood.
PC.
Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at www.malacological.org
>>> Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]> 2/25/2008 10:57 AM >>>
I "should" know this, and no doubt there is a plethera of info on the
web to help me, but Conch-l is easier and more fun!!
What does one call a specimen which is from the same "lot" (group of
specimens collected from a single population at the same time) that the
type specimen(s) of a given taxa were selected - ie, the specimen in
question was from the same lot of shells used when describing the taxa,
but not selected as an "official" type specimen of any type?
From sunny, spring-like New Scotland,
Ross Mayhew.
( http://www.schnr-specimen-shells.com/ )
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