Mime-Version: |
1.0 |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Wed, 7 Mar 2001 12:28:51 -0500 |
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset=us-ascii |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
desma (ligament) is another Greek-derived neuter root ending in a. I think it is most commonly used in fossil bivalves among mollusks, but modern genera such as Entodesma also use it.
Species names based on people's names are generally invariant, e.g. Turritella palmerae would still be palmerae if it were assigned to another genus. Occasionally there is a problem when the author apparently gave the wrong ending for the person(s) for whom it is named. A few examples can be found in the archives.
Other valid changes in species name spelling include the elimination of diacritical marks, making the name lower case, or spelling out originally abbreviated forms (Ecphora quadricostata was first described as Fusus 4-costata).
One commonly encountered illegal emendation of spelling, especially in older literature, is making the name internally more Latin. Some authors changed w to v, for example.
Dr. David Campbell
"Old Seashells"
Biology Department
Saint Mary's College of Maryland
18952 E. Fisher Road
St. Mary's City, MD 20686-3001 USA
[log in to unmask], 301 862-0372 Fax: 301 862-0996
"Mollusks murmured 'Morning!'. And salmon chanted 'Evening!'."-Frank Muir, Oh My Word!
|
|
|