Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1893 No. 1: 6 Oct. 2008
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2008-10-06
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1893.1.4
Page range: 65–68
Abstract views: 50
PDF downloaded: 24

Comments on "Chersine Merrem, 1820 and Chersina Gray, 1831: a nomenclatural survey by Bour & Ohler, Zootaxa, 1752: 66–68"

Museum of Zoology (Museum für Tierkunde), Natural History State Collections Dresden, A. B. Meyer Building, D-01109 Dresden, Germany
Zoologisches Institut und Zoologisches Museum, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
Reptilia Chersine Chersina

Abstract

In a recent correspondence, Bour & Ohler (2008) readdress the question of whether or not Testudo hermanni Gmelin, 1789 is the type species of the genus-group names Chersine Merrem, 1820 and Medaestia Wussow, 1916 (Reptilia: Testudines: Testudinidae). The senior author, Roger Bour, co-authored the earlier description of a new genus-group name for T. hermanni (Eurotestudo Lapparent de Broin, Bour, Parham & Perälä, 2006), a name considered as an objective junior synonym of both Chersine and Medaestia by Fritz & Bininda-Emonds (2007) and Fritz & Havaš (2007), who argued that all three names are based on the same type species, T. hermanni. Bour & Ohler (2008) disputed this conclusion. In the present paper, we wish to clarify nomenclatural issues raised by Bour & Ohler (2008).

References

  1. Boulenger, G. A. (1889) Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History). New Edition. British Museum (Natural History), London, x, 311 pp., 6 pls.

    Bour, R. & Ohler, A. (2008) Chersine Merrem, 1820 and Chersina Gray, 1831: a nomenclatural survey. Zootaxa, 1752, 66–68.

    Cheylan, M. (2001) Testudo hermanni Gmelin, 1789 – Griechische Landschildkröte. In: Fritz, U. (Ed.), Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas. Band 3/IIIA: Schildkröten I. Aula-Verlag, Wiebelsheim, pp. 179–289.

    Fitzinger, L. (1826) Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften. J. G. Heubner, Vienna, (6), 66 pp., 1 folding table.

    Fitzinger, L. (1843) Systema Reptilium. Fasciculus primus. Amblyglossae. Braumüller and Seidel, Vienna, 106, x pp.

    Flower, S. S. (1925) Contributions to our knowledge of the duration of life in vertebrate animals. III. Reptiles. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1925, 911–981.

    Flower, S. S. (1926) Species of land tortoises of the genus Testudo found in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Copeia, 1926, 133.

    Fritz, U. & Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P. (2007) When genes meet nomenclature: Tortoise phylogeny and the shifting generic concepts of Testudo and Geochelone. Zoology, 110, 298–307.

    Fritz, U. & Havaš, P. (2007) Checklist of chelonians of the world. Vertebrate Zoology, 57, 149–368.

    Gmelin, J. F. (1789) Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae. Tom. I. Pars III. G. E. Beer, Leipzig, (1), 1033–1516 pp.

    Gray, J. E. (1844) Catalogue of the Tortoises, Crocodiles, and Amphisbaenians in the Collection of the British Museum. British Museum, London, viii, 80 pp.

    Gray, J. E. (1870) Supplement to the Catalogue of Shield Reptiles in the Collection of the British Museum. Part 1, Testudinata (Tortoises). British Museum, London, ix, (1), 120 pp.

    Hermann, J. (1804) Observationes zoologicae, quibus novae complures, .... A. Koenig, Strasbourg and Paris, viii, 332 pp.

    ICZN [International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature] (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Fourth Edition. International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, XXIX, 306 pp.

    Lapparent de Broin, F. de, Bour, R., Parham, J. F. & Perälä, J. (2006) Eurotestudo, a new genus for the species Testudo hermanni Gmelin, 1789. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 5, 803–811.

    Lindholm, W. A. (1929) Revidiertes Verzeichnis der Gattungen der rezenten Schildkröten nebst Notizen zur Nomenklatur einiger Arten. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 81, 275–295.

    Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema Naturae … Editio Decima. L. Salvius, Stockholm, (4), 823, (1) pp.

    Lortet, L. (1887) Observations sur les tortues terrestres et paludines du Bassin du Méditerranée. Archives du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle Lyon, 4, 1–26, pls I–VIII.

    Merrem, B. (1820) Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien/Tentamen systematis amphibiorum. J. C. Krieger, Marburg, xv, 191 pp, 1 pl.

    Mertens, R. (1949) Medaestia Wussow, 1916, a synonym of Testudo Linnaeus, 1758. Copeia, 1949, 232.

    Pallas, P. S. (1811–1831) Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica. Tom. III. Animalia monocardia seu frigidi sanguinis imperii Rosso-Asiatici. Imperial Academy of Sciences, Petropolis, VII, 428, CXXV pp.

    Schoepff, J. D. (1792–1801) Historia Testudinum iconibus illustrata. I. I. Palm, Erlangen, XII, 136 pp., XXXII pls.

    Schreiber, E. (1875) Herpetologia europaea. Vieweg und Sohn, Braunschweig, XVII, 639 pp.

    Siebenrock, F. (1909) Synopsis der rezenten Schildkröten, mit Berücksichtigung der in historischer Zeit ausgestorbenen Arten. Zoologisches Jahrbuch, Systematik, Suppl. 10, 427–618.

    Siebenrock, F. (1913) Schildkröten aus Syrien und Mesopotamien. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien, 27, 171–225, pls 10–12.

    Strauch, A. (1862) Chelonologische Studien, mit besonderer Beziehung auf die Schildkrötensammlung der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu St.-Petersburg. Mémoires de l’Académie impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, VIIe Série, 5 (7), 1–196, 1 pl.

    Wussow, W. (1916) Meine Erfahrungen mit Testudo horsfieldi. Wochenschrift für Aquarien- und Terrarienkunde, 13, 169–172.