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Type: Monograph
Published: 2019-12-17
Page range: 1–111
Abstract views: 553
PDF downloaded: 642

The Linz Zoocode project: a set of new proposals regarding the terminology, the Principles and Rules of zoological nomenclature. First report of activities (2014‒2019)

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
Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA
Museu de História Natural e da Ciência, Universidade do Porto, Praça Gomes Teixeira, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal; (b) Departamento de Zoologia e Antropologia (Museu Bocage), Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua da Escola Politécnica 58, 1250-102 Lisboa, Portugal
Direction générale des Collections, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 43, 75005 Paris, France
Association RACINE, 5 allée des Cygnes, 35750 Saint Maugan, France
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Route de Malagnou 1, 1208 Genève, Switzerland.
INRA, UMR 0985 ESE (Écologie et Santé des Écosystèmes), INRA, Agrocampus Ouest, 65 rue de Saint-Brieuc, 35000 Rennes, 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
Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Museu de História Natural do Ceará Prof. Dias da Rocha, Av. Dr. Silas Munguba, 1700 Fortaleza, Ceará, 60714-903, Brazil
Biology Centre of the Upper Austrian Museum, J.-W.-Klein-Straße 73, 4040 Linz, Austria
zoological taxonomy zoological nomenclature Code Zoocode terminology nomenclatural ranks Preamble Nomenclatural Process (assignment availability allocation validity correctness registration) Principles of the Zoocode (independence foundation

Abstract

In July 2014, the international meeting “Burning questions and problems of zoological nomenclature” was held in Linz (Austria). It acknowledged the presence in the current International Code of Zoological Nomenclature of a number of severe problems, and accordingly decided the creation of a new international body, the Linz Zoocode Committee (LZC), in charge of writing the Linz Zoocode, a set of new proposals regarding the terminology, the Principles and Rules of zoological nomenclature. Here we present the first report of the activities of this Committee, covering the period 2014‒2019. It contains the presentation of our work, and the first documents adopted by the Committee: the Preamble and Principles of the Zoocode, the description of its structure and a first instalment of the Zoocode Glossary. The Zoocode regulates the status of zoological nomina and nomenclatural acts (onomatergies). Its aim is to provide an explicit, precise and objective nomenclatural system for the unambiguous and universal naming of all zoological taxa recognised by taxonomists, so that, in the frame of a given classification, the nomen of each taxon is unique and distinct. It relies on a Nomenclatural Process consisting in four main stages: nomenclatural assignment and availability, taxonomic allocation, nomenclatural validity and correctness, and registration of nomina and onomatergies. Whereas the Code currently in force is based on six stated Principles, the Zoocode recognises 17 distinct ones. We here submit these documents to the consideration of the international community of zootaxonomists, in the perspective of the incorporation of these proposals into the next version of the Code.