Quite right, Richard,
and ideally that is what Wikipedia aims at--to have its information backed by
published sources. It requires references for important statements and does not
allow 'original research.' However, someone must care enough (and be
knowledgeable enough) to call out the bluffs of wanna-be editors and require
accessible references to back up information. Articles are reviewed and 'graded'
on how well referenced its sections are (and the validity & accessibility of
those references). (A different article in Wikipadia that I have contributed to
often was just 'demoted' from an 'A' article to 'B' because one section was
short on references.)
I had worked for some time trying to 'tame' the species list for the Cowry
article but eventually realized that it required resources to which I had no
access. I purged it in the interest of keeping mis-information to a minimum but
the 'style preference' of a senior editor overrode my concerns about unreliable
data. He felt that the article 'looked' better with a species list. :-/
As Carlo Maccà pointed out subsequently, if an person had latinized his/her
name, the -ii ending was indeed proper. This, however, requires a further set of
facts: Did that person him/herself have to declare his/her name latinized? Or,
might someone else do that? Or, if so done in either case, WHEN was it done in
relation to the species in question?
Count me out of that scenario. I like cowries,... a lot! But, I am NOT ga-ga
over them. They are only snail shells. Perhaps someone on this list truly IS
ga-ga AND has the time, resources, references and inclination to improve the
Wikipedia Cowry species list... in the interest of improving the public's
understanding of the way cowries are, versus the way someone thinks they should
be.
Bob Dayle
__________________________________________
Quoting Richard Petit <[log in to unmask]>:
> At the risk of stating the obvious, any publication on mollusks that is
> intended to be authoritative must be based on the published literature, not
> on web sites or Wikipedia.
>
> dick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob Dayle" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 9:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Technical question on -ii endings of cowry names...
>
>
> > Thanks David, Fabio, & Ed.
> >
> > The situation is, obviously, complex. Since my attempt earlier to delete
> > the
> > list of names was reverted by a 'senior' editor whose "preference" was to
> > have a
> > list (even if its value is dubious), I will now warn anyone with access to
> > this
> > posting that said list of cowry species in Wikipedia should NOT be taken
> > seriously.
> >
> > Bob Dayle
> > http://cowry.org
> >
> > _______________________________
> > Quoting Eduard Heiman <[log in to unmask]>:
> >
> >> Fabio,
> >> in the original description of Cypraea gaskoini (# 122, Plate 22) by
> >> Reeve
> >> (1846) the name is with one "i".
> >> But in the "temporary index" (contents) of the same work it is written
> >> "Gaskoinii, Reeve" -with two 'i's indeed. It seems to me that the
> >> "temporary
> >> index" is not a part of the description hence we have to continue using
> >> the
> >> name C. gaskoini.
> >> best regards
> >> Ed
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: Fabio Moretzsohn
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:45 AM
> >> Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Technical question on -ii endings of cowry
> >> names...
> >>
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >> As David mentioned below, the literature has a lot of spelling errors,
> >> so
> >> you do need to check the original description. It is tricky to track
> >> those,
> >> and although there are some sites that provide scans of old papers
> >> including
> >> some original descriptions, I am not aware of such a resource that has a
> >> complete archive of all cowrie descriptions. For cowries, Lorenz and
> >> Hubert
> >> (1993, 2000) did a pretty good job at checking original descriptions. I
> >> cannot say that all are correct, because I did not check all original
> >> descriptions, but in the group I studied, the Cribrarula cribraria
> >> complex,
> >> one example comes to mind: most authors (e.g. Schilder and Schilder,
> >> 1938,
> >> Burgess, 1985) incorrectly list the Hawaiian endemic Cypraea gaskoini
> >> Reeve,
> >> 1846 with one "i", as it would be logical since it was dedicated to J. S.
> >> Gaskoin. However, the original spelling ends in "ii", therefore the
> >> correct
> >> spelling should be "gaskoinii" (with 2 "i"s), as in Lorenz and Hubert
> >> (1993,
> >> 2000).
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Fabio M.
> >>
> >> -------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >> Burgess, C. M., 1985. Cowries of the World.. Seacomber Publications,
> >> Cape
> >> Town. 289 pp.
> >>
> >> Lorenz F. & Hubert, A. 1993. A Guide to worldwide cowries. 571 pp.
> >> ConchBooks Hackenheim Germany.
> >>
> >> Lorenz F. & Hubert, A. 2000. A Guide to worldwide cowries. 590 pp.
> >> ConchBooks Hackenheim Germany.
> >>
> >> Schilder F.A. & Schilder, M. 1938. Prodrome of a monograph on living
> >> Cypraeidae. Proc. of Malacological Society of London, 23:119-231.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 4:01 PM, David Campbell <[log in to unmask]>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, ending with -i or -ii is very garbled in subsequent
> >> literature. You pretty much have to check the original to be
> >> certain,
> >> though some compilations are very reliable in most cases (e.g.,
> >> Sherborn's Index Animalium, available online via the Smithsonian).
> >> ae
> >> versus oe is another big problem, made even worse by fonts that don't
> >> distinguish them well, as Gary Rosenburg pointed out.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dr. David Campbell
> >> 425 Scientific Collections
> >> University of Alabama
> >> "I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
> >>
> >>
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