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Type: Article
Published: 2018-12-20
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The Relictus case: it is high time that taxonomists follow the Code’s requirements for nomenclatural availability and validity of new zoological nomina

Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB – UMR 7205 – CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 30, 75005, Paris, France
Association RACINE, 5 allée des cygnes, 35750 Saint Maugan, France
Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB – UMR 7205 – CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 30, 75005, Paris, France
Code nomenclatural availability electronic publication Zoobank diagnosis characters nomenclatural validity homonymy

Abstract

The new genus-series nomen Relictus, proposed by Sá et al. (2018) for a subgenus of the frog genus Chiasmocleis Méhelÿ, 1904, is unavailable for having been proposed [1] in a paper published online unregistered in Zoobank and [2] without a diagnosis stating in words characters purported to differentiate the taxon. Finally, it is also invalid for being a junior homonym of a generic nomen of fishes. Such mistakes are not new, many other similar ones having been published in the recent years. All taxonomists should give the proper attention to the nomenclatural Rules of the Code when proposing new nomina.

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