Dear Andrew,
What's an "outright synonym?"
Harry
At 08:37 PM 9/20/2009, you wrote:
>I was on a paleo fieldtrip with Alan Beu last week, and while looking
>at a specimen of Austrocominella (a subgenus of Austrofusus) we'd dug
>out of an Oligocene sand Alan asked if I'd heard the latest. It turns
>out that Austrofusus, based on a South American species, is
>signifiocantly different to the shells going by that genus in New
>Zealand. Alan is disappointed to have to revert to an Iredale name
>(Iredale had something wrong in his head) and abandon a long-used name
>in New Zealand, but there's no option... for the NZ lineage, which
>goes from at least the middle Eocene to present, Austrofusus is no
>longer valid. Instead we have to use Aethocola Iredale 1915. Which
>leaves me with a lot of updating to do on my fossils...
>
>On other NZ-based generic taxa which turn up on auctions etc...
>
>Microfulgur carinatus is Pararetifusus carinatus (Buccinidae);
>Microfulgur is monotypic (Paleocene)
>Latiromitra problematica is a Metzgeria (Turbinellidae: Ptychatractinae)
>Waimatea is an outright synonym of Volutomitra, based on a NZ Eocene species
>Turbo smaragdus is a Lunella (DNA indicates this, despite the shell
>differences)
>
>And a few others in which incorrect usage persists:
>Afer is Buccinidae, not Turbinellidae
>Fusinus africanae (South Africa) is probably an Afer
>"Benthovoluta" barthelowi is Latiromitra crosnieri
>Exilia (synonyms: Benthovoluta)
>Calliotectum (Teramachia), with only 2 living spp (possibly 3)
>Melongena is an outright synonym of Volema
>
>And a personal opinion: Astralium is based on a species (A. phoebia)
>which shows great similarities to the type species of the genus
>Astraea (which supposedly has only 3 species). I can't see, based on
>shell and opercular characters, that Astralium is anything but an
>synonym of Astraea. If eventual DNA work confirms my view, then what
>happens to all of those other species presently assigned to Astralium?
>
>--
>Regards
>Andrew Grebneff
>Dunedin, New Zealand
>Fossil preparator
>Mollusc, Toyota & VW van fanatic
>
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