Unfortunately there is no way to avoid creation of synonyms.  The root cause is that taxonomists are human and that we have more than one of them.  The number of errors can be held to a minimum by adherance to the peer review model in modern scientific publishing.  Avoiding peer review because you cannot get your paper accepted ducks the question as to why this is so.  Maybe you are making the next synonym.  This is not elitist as some have suggested.  It is rather good science.

Yours,


John K. Tucker
-----Original message-----
From: David Campbell [log in to unmask]
Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:34:23 -0500
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: synonyms

> //  The molluscan record for having been described the most, hence having the largest collection of monikers, may go to Conus ventricosus Gmelin 1791 (often known as Conus mediterraneus Hwass, 1792), which as the only cone in Mediterranean waters and highly variable at that, has accumulated perhaps as many as 100 synonyms over the past couple of hundred years.<

Anodonta cygnea, a common, variable freshwater mussel in Europe, is
estimated to have several hundred synonyms and may hold the record for
all taxa.  There are at least a couple of related species that have
been lumped under cygnea at various times, and I do not know what a
current breakdown of the synonyms would be for each name.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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